Energy Question of the Week

If nuclear power is so volatile and dangerous; why is it that none of the Darth Vader wannabee dictators of ass backward countries like Iran, North Korea and China have had a nuclear accident from building their own power plant/weapons refinery that has blown themselves to kingdom come?

Could it be that Jane Fonda was blowing smoke up our collective asses with the China Syndrome and nuclear power is overall much safer than she and Homer Simpson would have us believe?

There have been seventeen “Major” nuclear power accidents in the past fifty-six years. While that is one every three years, we are talking about one every three years or so this is a world-wide list. Sure the ominous fear of the nuclear bogyman is in the back of everyone’s mind but let’s come up with a list of things more dangerous than nuclear power:

• Operating farm machinery: 350 deaths per year
• Having Surgery: 500 deaths per year
• Gasses emitted from everyday appliances: 700 deaths per year
• Getting shot: 1,500 deaths per year
• Eating (and chocking on food): 33,00 deaths per year
• Being in a burning building: 37,000 deaths per year
• Drowning: 4,000 deaths per year
• Poisonings/allergic reactions: 8,600 deaths per year
• Falling down (altitude dependent): 14,900 deaths per year
• Driving (and crashing into something): 43,200 deaths per year

So there’s 10 ways you’re more likely to die than from having a nuclear power plant nearby.