OH NO
With Japan’s nuclear crisis scaring governments and people all around the world, it’s worth looking at how dangerous nuclear power really is – you know, how many people die in the process of obtaining it. To do that, what we need to do is compare the deaths per Terawatt-hour of all global energy sources and see which one kills the most people.
Thankfully, someone already put together a table containing the relevant information.
Table by www.nextbigfuture.com
Not quite what you expected, right?
While nuclear power has a lot of burst damage potential in the case of a catastrophe and could have scary long-term effects on the nearby environment and populations, it is generally the safest energy source available. With the use of modern reactors those nuclear deaths will decrease even more as longer time periods would pass without incident. Not the same can be said about coal, which is about as advanced as it can get and has a permanent negative effect on the whole planet (global warming).
I may be biased towards preferring nuclear power, but that’s because I’ve seen no convincing arguments or developments for the other power sources.
PS: If you’re wondering how rooftop solar panels end lives, it’s simple: people fall off of roofs installing/cleaning them. Also, this.
