I’ve Seen Some Posts Going Around About How Only Dummies Think Nuclear Power Is Dangerous, So I Want

I’ve seen some posts going around about how only dummies think nuclear power is dangerous, so I want to just put it out there, in the hope that maybe I’ll create a bit of understanding:

Provided storage space is adequate, I’m not afraid of nuclear power.

I’m afraid of THE COMPANIES THAT PRODUCE nuclear power.

Let me explain.

I know new nuclear power plants have more failsafes than there are stars in the sky. And that’s great…as long as they were designed correctly, the pieces were all manufactured correctly, and nobody lied.

I know nuclear power plants are subject to strenuous inspections. And that’s great…as long as the inspectors actually check everything regularly as scheduled and nobody lies.

I know nuclear storage barrels are safety-tested. And that’s great…as long as they’re manufactured correctly, buried where they’re supposed to be, and nobody lies.

Because here’s the thing. I’ve watched a pretty fair amount of videos on nuclear disasters both power plant-related and otherwise. And every single one, every single one, can be traced back to the same source: someone lied in order to save money.

Plant maintenance is neglected to save money.

Plant inspections are neglected to save money.

Plants that say “dear Company That Produces This Critical Part Of Our Infrastructure, this piece keeps failing even though we’re using it correctly, please advise” will get ignored or accused of lying/user error, so The Company That Produces Etc. can save money. One case I saw involved a piece of cancer-radiation machinery that was shooting people (seemingly) at random with lethal doses of radiation, and the production company went “we investigated ourselves and found nothing wrong, are you sure you’re not just stupid?” Turns out they’d never even included a user manual with a piece of lifesaving-but-also-potentially-lethal machinery…to save money. And there were many, MANY things wrong with the machine, actually, as was discovered when an outside agency did an investigation.

This is not a problem unique to nuclear power. But if a wind turbine is seated wrong, it can be dismantled and reseated elsewhere (expensive but not unfixable). If a coal plant catches fire (heaven forbid), the result is absolutely Really Not Good but the worst of it can be fixed in just a couple of years, and we understand the potential related health problems enough to treat them. If a hydro plant isn’t working right, it’s not going to fry the entire ocean.

But if a nuclear plant blows because—and again, I stress this is what has happened IN EVERY NUCLEAR DISASTER IN HISTORY—a company lied to save money, that’s 26,000 years the affected land may be uninhabitable. You can cover your face with a mask or shirt to get away from coal ash while you evacuate. There is absolutely nothing the average civilian can do to protect themselves from nuclear fallout while they evacuate. And unlike coal ash, just a few minutes of that initial radioactive exposure can be enough to kill you. There’s no going back, either—lungs can be flushed, but mutated or even shredded DNA can’t be fixed.

Let me be clear, I DO NOT want coal power forever. (To me, the future is solar.) I think it’s wasteful, environmentally toxic, inefficient, ecologically devastating and unsustainable. But I question if nuclear is the way forward not because of the dangers inherent in what’s in a nuclear reactor—I question if nuclear is the way forward because there are too many greedy people with too much to gain from pinching lifesaving pennies.