Last edited Thu Jun 26, 2025, 04:27 AM - Edit history (1)
I say "criminally" because whenever I hear it, I ask the person making it to show, that radioactive materials from fission in nuclear power plants accumulated in the 70 year history of commercial nuclear power has killed as many people as will die in the next 8 hours from fossil fuel waste, aka "air pollution," which is about 6000 people. I then cite a Lancet article and some commentary from it.
Global burden of 87 risk factors in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 (Lancet Volume 396, Issue 10258, 17–23 October 2020, Pages 1223-1249). This study is a huge undertaking and the list of authors from around the world is rather long. These studies are always open sourced; and I invite people who want to carry on about Fukushima to open it and search the word "radiation." It appears once. Radon, a side product brought to the surface by fracking while we all wait for the grand so called "renewable energy" nirvana that did not come, is not here and won't come, appears however: Household radon, from the decay of natural uranium, which has been cycling through the environment ever since oxygen appeared in the Earth's atmosphere.
Here is what it says about air pollution deaths in the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Survey, if one is too busy to open it oneself because one is too busy carrying on about Fukushima:
The top five risks for attributable deaths for females were high SBP (5·25 million [95% UI 4·49–6·00] deaths, or 20·3% [17·5–22·9] of all female deaths in 2019), dietary risks (3·48 million [2·78–4·37] deaths, or 13·5% [10·8–16·7] of all female deaths in 2019), high FPG (3·09 million [2·40–3·98] deaths, or 11·9% [9·4–15·3] of all female deaths in 2019), air pollution (2·92 million [2·53–3·33] deaths or 11·3% [10·0–12·6] of all female deaths in 2019), and high BMI (2·54 million [1·68–3·56] deaths or 9·8% [6·5–13·7] of all female deaths in 2019). For males, the top five risks differed slightly. In 2019, the leading Level 2 risk factor for attributable deaths globally in males was tobacco (smoked, second-hand, and chewing), which accounted for 6·56 million (95% UI 6·02–7·10) deaths (21·4% [20·5–22·3] of all male deaths in 2019), followed by high SBP, which accounted for 5·60 million (4·90–6·29) deaths (18·2% [16·2–20·1] of all male deaths in 2019). The third largest Level 2 risk factor for attributable deaths among males in 2019 was dietary risks (4·47 million [3·65–5·45] deaths, or 14·6% [12·0–17·6] of all male deaths in 2019) followed by air pollution (ambient particulate matter and ambient ozone pollution, accounting for 3·75 million [3·31–4·24] deaths (12·2% [11·0–13·4] of all male deaths in 2019), and then high FPG (3·14 million [2·70–4·34] deaths, or 11·1% [8·9–14·1] of all male deaths in 2019).
Nuclear power does not need to be risk free to be vastly superior to everything else, including the 7 million people killed each year because there are fools running around claiming if anyone anywhere at any time dies from radiation, that would be worse.
I have written extensively here on the components of used nuclear fuel, including radioactive fission products and the higher actinides to show that these components are extremely valuable materials on which the future of humanity may well depend, since radiation can do things that nothing else can do, for example, break carbon-fluorine bonds.
Even if this were not true, even under the current conditions of fear and ignorance in which the components of used nuclear fuel are stored on site rather than put to important uses, nuclear energy
saves lives.
Prevented Mortality and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Historical and Projected Nuclear Power (Pushker A. Kharecha* and James E. Hansen Environ. Sci. Technol., 2013, 47 (9), pp 4889–4895)
It follows that antinuke cults kill people.
The history of antinukism is a crime against humanity to my mind. I have no use for its adherents, its promoters, and their tiresome dogmatic chants.
Got it?
No?
I couldn't care less. There is a sea change in attitudes about nuclear energy in these desperate times, and the seas rising because as a result of antinuke fear and ignorance is a reason for it.
It's way too little, way too late, but it's the best and only hope we have.
Have a nice day.
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