A Commentary on Failure, Delusion and Faith: Danish Data on Big Wind Turbines and Their Lifetimes.

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12. I do not have an "absurd fear" of radioactive materials. I have respect for them.

My father was a physics professor and I grew up around radionuclides. I used radioactive sources from his lab in my senior science fair project which won multiple prizes at the international science fair. I use radioactive sources today at times in my work which involves calibrating laboratory instruments.

What disgusts me is people who ignore risks and pretend they don't exist. I work in industry and risk surrounds me all the time. You have to evaluate it correctly to make optimal decisions.

Nuclear power has rather small risks in the near term and very large ones in the long term. Profit-seeking industries have a bad habit of ignoring long-term risks until they blow up in everyone's faces. I have seen this in realms that have nothing to do with nuclear energy. Profit-seeking corporations cannot be trusted with dangerous technologies. They will cut corners. This is what led to the Deepwater Horizon blowout which poisoned a lot of the Gulf of Mexico. On a smaller scale this has led to truck scales which collapsed with trucks sitting on them, causing a horrible mess that cost far more to clean up than proper maintenance would have cost to prevent the failure.

If I am cynical it is because I have seen failure and stupidity and I know history repeats itself. What disgusts me is ignorance.