China opens its 50th nuclear reactor.

[NNadir]

13. Really, "if a fuck up happens?"

Last year between 6 and 7 million people died worldwide from air pollution, about half from dangerous fossil fuels, and about half from "renewable" biofuels.

That's 19,000 per day.

Here is the most recent full report from the Global Burden of Disease Report, a survey of all causes of death and disability from environmental and lifestyle risks: Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015 (Lancet 2016; 388: 1659–724) One can easily locate in this open sourced document compiled by an international consortium of medical and scientific professionals how many people die from causes related to air pollution, particulates, ozone, etc.

In 1986, a nuclear reactor with a graphite core, burned for weeks, open to the atmosphere. It is clearly considered the worst nuclear fuck up of all time. I was a stupid assed anti-nuke who routinely listened to other stupid assed anti-nukes. I expected at least one million deaths. Any idea of how many people who actually died from radiation at Chernobyl? How about the big boogey man at Fukushima?

I mean, more than 20,000 people drowned at Fukushima from the effects of seawater, but how many died from radiation? Is the death toll massive, 19,000 people per day?

Let me see if I understand this: If air pollution kills people at a daily rate higher than Covid-19 has killed worldwide on its worst day, it's still not as bad as a so called nuclear "fuck up."

Is this an ethical position, that if anyone might die from a radiation connected with a "nuclear fuck up" it's OK to let all other forms of energy kill at will and continuously?

Exactly what is the ethical ratio of acceptable deaths from air pollution as compared to radiation deaths. It seems that the world has agreed that radiation deaths are at 10 million times, at least, worse than on going continuous air pollution deaths. Agreed?