It's almost amusing, were it not so tragic, that people make Pavlovian "danger" statements whenever they hear the word "nuclear," although nuclear energy has a spectacular record of producing an extraordinarily low death toll per unit of energy produced, while the wastes pouring out of smokestacks and chimneys kills over 7 million people per year with not even a single whimper.
I would submit for something to be "dangerous" it must produce significant harm, like say air pollution. If some prevents that which is dangerous it is a tool for safety.
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)
In stating this, I am not advocating for a mission to Mars; right now I think we have more important tasks to accomplish, but if people make small portable nuclear reactors for this purpose, it may, as is the case for the computer technology developed for the Apollo missions, have broader applications.
We need small portable nuclear reactors, desperately.
= new reply since forum marked as read