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[–]astronautrob 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Nuclear energy is of course very safe till it's not. Look at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. They still are dumping radioactive waste in the Pacific. They still don't have it under control. So yes nuclear energy is safe but when something goes wrong it goes really wrong. That's not the case so much with other forms of energy. A coal plant blowing up is not going to possibly wipe out the entire population, etc. The consequences of a nuclear accident are much greater than any of the other forms of energy listed on this chart. So maybe a better way to look at it would be possible deaths or degrees of destruction if something were to happen. On top of that most of these other forms of energy have been around a lot longer so it would make sense they would have higher deaths just because.

[–]useless_aether[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

[–]astronautrob 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Look here's a great thought experiment/example. Think of a graph with certain weapons on it. Bullets, rockets, bayonets, mines, swords, pikes, w.e, etc., Etc. This list would also include nuclear bombs right? That graph would probably look a lot similar. Maybe swords, pikes etc. on top. Maybe bullets and rockets outpace those things. But my point is nuclear bombs would probably be waaaaay at the bottom right? Are they safer than other weapons? Idt anyone would say they were. I think that's a good analogy to this graph. Yes nuclear power has been safer over time, which is one way to measure "safety", but the amount of damage it can do has to be taken in to account.

[–]astronautrob 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

No thank you. Do you have any sourced articles? I don't know how anyone could refute the things that have happened and are continuing to happen in Japan. That was one nuclear plant, just one. It crazy to think if something like that happened to say 5 plants across the globe. Again I think it's about degrees of danger or destruction, not just historical total deaths.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Think about how many times the government and media have lied to you. Why is this time any different?

I START from the position they are lying.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I agree, sort of. We're told a LOT of misinformation, so why should information on radiation be much different?

Also, check out /s/Energy and other comments under this post referring to Thorium.