# @generationatomic on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CLPZshYDSMQ
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/12180583-generationatomic-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/1c4e6bbdde.jpg
- **Posted:** 2021-02-13T17:23:57.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Generation Atomic (@generationatomic) — https://gondola.cc/generationatomic

## Caption

Reposted from our friends gotnuclear ! Nuclear has one of the smallest death rates of all major energy sources, including renewables. It has consistently ranked among the lowest in deaths per unit of energy produced.

Sadly, of course, accidents do happen.
Chernobyl (1986) often stands out as the most serious. Due to bad reactor design & even worse government response, the tragic deaths of 134 emergency workers were entirely avoidable, along with thousands of cases of leukemia and thyroid cancer.

But, it’s important to keep nuclear accidents in perspective. For example, far more lives have been lost in coal mining accidents, just in the last ten years, than the total lost due to Chernobyl, the worst nuclear accident in history. We have to keep in mind that nuclear energy exists in a broader energy context, with fossil fuels as a main alternative. The nuclear plants that are being shut down in Germany (due to misinformed public outcry) have almost all been replaced with coal-burning power plants, which are causing thousands of premature deaths from air pollution every year. 

Another serious nuclear accident was Fukushima, in 2011. 573 people died, and it’s worth noting that those deaths were solely due to the stress of the evacuation, not the accident itself. And while one person eventually died from radiation exposure, most were exposed to less than 1/3rd the radiation the average person picks up during a normal year.

After the worst nuclear accident in US history (at Three Mile Island, in 1979), scientists collected thousands of samples from the area, and found little effect on the environment or human health. The two million people closest to the damaged reactor were exposed to about 1/6th of the radiation you'd get during a chest X-ray.

So despite accidents, nuclear energy remains one of our safest energy sources. In fact, a 2013 study by NASA concluded that nuclear energy actually saved two million lives between 1971 and 2009 by displacing fossil fuels from the global energy mix.

#Energy #NuclearEnergy #NuclearPower #CleanEnergy #NuclearEnergyIsCleanEnergy #NuclearSavesLives

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## Tags

nuclearenergyiscleanenergy, energy, cleanenergy, nuclearenergy, nuclearsaveslives, nuclearpower

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