Reply #78: As an exercise in critical thinking... [View All]

[hunter]

...compare that big mess along the Colorado River to the bigger messes caused by coal mining.

Compare the radiation deaths per kilowatt capacity caused by the nuclear power industry to any hypothetical hemp powered industry.

I dare say there would be more "radiation" deaths resulting from industries powered by hemp than industries powered by uranium or thorium.

I often hear folks saying how Mother Nature was smart enough to put her nuclear power plant 93 million miles from earth, as if the sun is somehow a benign form of energy. It's not. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun kills about ten thousand people in the United States every year. Ultravioet radiation is every bit as dangerous as the sorts of radiation associated with nuclear power generation.

Perhaps more significantly, per kilowatt nuclear power is much less likely to kill workers or the general public than energy derived from agricultural products.

Agriculture is a very dangerous business. The death rate of agricultural workers is FOUR TIMES that of all other industries combined. Agricultural workers are much more likely to be killed or maimed than workers in the nuclear power industry. Furthermore the nuclear power industry is small enough to tightly regulate. But there are so many agricultural workers using dangerous machines and dangerous chemicals that it is almost impossible for any government agency to effectively regulate every aspect of the business.

Citing a bunch of random awful facts about the nuclear power industry does nothing to advance the argument about the safety or dangers of nuclear power. Everything humans do is dangerous. Everything. Sitting in front of your computer can kill you, especially if you have some underlying medical condition that is aggravated by inactivity.

Is nuclear power dangerous? Yes. Is it more dangerous than other forms of energy? That's the question that needs to be answered, and you can only do that by grinding the numbers, and examining the myriad possibilities.

It's hard work.