why does the media do it?

[john21031]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

Totally understand your argument. I didn't mean to suggest there is no danger in nuclear energy. It would be foolish to suggest that.

Still. the worst nuclear disaster in history, Chernobyl, killed 30 people. A shame, but not at all catastrophic.

"The initial explosion resulted in the death of two workers. 28 of the firemen and emergency clean-up workers died in the first three months after the explosion from Acute Radiation Sickness and one of cardiac arrest."

And Chernobyl didn't have nearly the safe guards that today's plants have. It didn't have a containment system and deaths were still minimal.

Of course, lingering radiation created some health issues and cancers but wasn't considered extreme.

In contrast, 115 people die each day in car accidents in the US alone (and we have the most stringent safety standards).


The thing is, is that creating energy will always have some type of drawback. No matter how clean or safe they are considered to be. If we are not prepared to take those small risks, we may as well revert back to being cave men. Forget even just flipping that light switch.

The tragedy of Chernobyl is not the people who died as a direct result of the explosion. It's the mutation and birth defects in the thousand and millions of people who were affected. It's the cancer rate... the child's leukemia, those things are the real consequences of radiation leaks.

You sound like you completely underestimate the dangers of nuclear incidents. Next time you hear of cancer - think of this thread. It's that serious.