I’ve already mentioned that the nuclear situation is only a sideline to everything else – it’s claimed a sum total of 1 lives right now, while the tsunami and earthquake have killed tens of thousands. Still, with all of the focus, I want to mention several things:
- The reactor in question is from the 70s. We’ve got reactors that have had more safety improvements than cars have made in that time.
- What’s occurred so far is an industrial accident – unfortunate, but not much different from, for example, the recent Hungarian event.
- Japan is taking incredible precautions – which is good, but the fact remains that you can still measure the radiation in bananas. Or Denver.
- Even with all of this, Nuclear remains far safer than our other power options.
If you would like any other details of the situation, there’s pretty good coverage here. But in short, the media and surgeon general are doing us a massive disservice by blowing this incident way, way, way out of proportion.
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