How many nuke plant disasters would be needed to equal the deaths from coal, oil?

Little-Acorn

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I keep hearing how dangerous and deadly nuclear power is, how we shouldn't have any, etc. The earthquake and tsunami hitting Japan has knocked out a number of their nuclear power plants, with the possibility of core meltdowns and releases of radiation. Japanese officials say they have already released small amounts of radiation to keep plant pressures manageable.

How safe is nuclear power? We've had it for more than fifty years now, while the nation has also been producing large amounts of electricity from coal-fired plants, oil-fired plants, hydroelectric etc.; plus small amounts from geothermal, wind, and solar.

In the last fifty years, how many people have died from nuclear energy plant mishaps? How many died at and near Chernobyl in Russia? How many at Three Mile Island, at plants in France, in Japan, and all other nuclear power plants around the world? How many in uranium mines where the uranium was used in power-generation plants, from transporting uranium, storage and transportation of nuclear waste, etc?

And how many have died from coal-generated energy? How many in coal mines, from black-lung disease, from air pollution from coal-fired plants, coal transportation mishaps, from accidents at coal power plants? And the same questions from oil-fired energy plants, oil fields and pumping plants, refineries, oil tanker mishaps, and the rest?

It's hard to evaluate the safety of each, if you don't know the facts. Each has now had a long time to compiles its relative safety record.

Anybody know the numbers for each?

In fact, if coal and oil generation had compiled the same safety record that nuclear plants have for the past fifty years, wouldn't we be calling coal "the safest industry the world has ever known"?
 
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just as a point of fact...Chernobyl...you can;'t even go live there today...estimates range but are around 4000 dead...

also 336,000 people had to be relocated,

also newer reports on cancer and cancer deaths show number could be well higher...as much as 270,000 cancers of them 93,000 fatal.

feel free to show a coal death toll near that...its not likely unless you wanted to count all deaths from pollution...meaning you have to admit that there is a reason for the government to lower pollution standards even if it costs money ( that or for you to say your willing to let those people die for cost savings)
 
I keep hearing how dangerous and deadly nuclear power is, how we shouldn't have any, etc. The earthquake and tsunami hitting Japan has knocked out a number of their nuclear power plants, with the possibility of core meltdowns and releases of radiation. Japanese officials say they have already released small amounts of radiation to keep plant pressures manageable.

How safe is nuclear power? We've had it for more than fifty years now, while the nation has also been producing large amounts of electricity from coal-fired plants, oil-fired plants, hydroelectric etc.; plus small amounts from geothermal, wind, and solar.

In the last fifty years, how many people have died from nuclear energy plant mishaps? How many died at and near Chernobyl in Russia? How many at Three Mile Island, at plants in France, in Japan, and all other nuclear power
plants around the world? How many in uranium mines where the uranium was used in power-generation plants, from transporting uranium, storage and transportation of nuclear waste, etc?

And how many have died from coal-generated energy? How many in coal
mines, from black-lung disease, from air pollution from coal-fired plants, coal transportation mishaps, from accidents at coal power plants? And the same questions from oil-fired energy plants, oil fields and pumping plants, refineries, oil tanker mishaps, and the rest?

It's hard to evaluate the safety of each, if you don't know the facts. Each has now had a long time to compiles its relative safety record.

Anybody know the numbers for each?

In fact, if coal and oil generation had compiled the same safety record that nuclear plants have for the past fifty years, wouldn't we be calling coal "the safest industry the world has ever known"?

I think a lot of opposition to nuclear power comes from a general misconception about how it works exactly....as for hard safety numbers over the last fifty years, I have ni idea, would be interesting to see though, if any correlations could even be drawn.
 
So we have some evidence for deaths from coal-fired electrical generation and its fuel; zero evidence for deaths from nuclear-power generation and its fuel.

It's a start.

BTW, several people have pointed ouut to me that emissions from a coal-fired power plant are more radioactive than emissions from a nuclear power plant generating the same amount of electricity.

Radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium exist as very small trace elements in coal, that occur naturally. But when the coal is burned, most pesky impurities like carbon are eliminated, effectively concentrating the remaining substances in the fly ash that results... and which come out the smokestacks into the air.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste

How many people have come down with various forms of cancer from the emissions of coal-fired power plants? And how many from the emissions of nuclear power plants?
 
I think a lot of opposition to nuclear power comes from a general misconception about how it works exactly....as for hard safety numbers over the last fifty years, I have ni idea, would be interesting to see though, if any correlations could even be drawn.

That and NIMBY-ism.

The earthquake in Japan does raise the question of safety in an earthquake zone, but most of the US is not prone to strong quakes.

And, nothing is totally safe, of course, and the OP does raise an interesting question: Which is really the most dangerous, coal or nuclear? Given the mining disasters, probably coal.
 
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/03/deaths-per-twh-for-all-energy-sources.html

Coal is FAR more dangerous than nukes, in fact, wind power has four times the mortality rate. Rooftop solar energy has 11 times the mortality rate as nukes (because people fall off the roof while installing it.)

Deaths per trillion watt-hours:

Coal – world average 161 (26% of world energy, 50% of electricity)
Coal – China 278
Coal – USA 15
Oil 36 (36% of world energy)
Natural Gas 4 (21% of world energy)
Biofuel/Biomass 12
Peat 12
Solar (rooftop) 0.44 (less than 0.1% of world energy)
Wind 0.15 (less than 1% of world energy)
Hydro 0.10 (europe death rate, 2.2% of world energy)
Hydro - world including Banqiao) 1.4 (about 2500 TWh/yr and 171,000 Banqiao dead)
Nuclear 0.04 (5.9% of world energy)
 
I keep hearing how dangerous and deadly nuclear power is, how we shouldn't have any, etc. The earthquake and tsunami hitting Japan has knocked out a number of their nuclear power plants, with the possibility of core meltdowns and releases of radiation. Japanese officials say they have already released small amounts of radiation to keep plant pressures manageable.

How safe is nuclear power? We've had it for more than fifty years now, while the nation has also been producing large amounts of electricity from coal-fired plants, oil-fired plants, hydroelectric etc.; plus small amounts from geothermal, wind, and solar.

In the last fifty years, how many people have died from nuclear energy plant mishaps? How many died at and near Chernobyl in Russia? How many at Three Mile Island, at plants in France, in Japan, and all other nuclear power plants around the world? How many in uranium mines where the uranium was used in power-generation plants, from transporting uranium, storage and transportation of nuclear waste, etc?

And how many have died from coal-generated energy? How many in coal mines, from black-lung disease, from air pollution from coal-fired plants, coal transportation mishaps, from accidents at coal power plants? And the same questions from oil-fired energy plants, oil fields and pumping plants, refineries, oil tanker mishaps, and the rest?

It's hard to evaluate the safety of each, if you don't know the facts. Each has now had a long time to compiles its relative safety record.

Anybody know the numbers for each?

In fact, if coal and oil generation had compiled the same safety record that nuclear plants have for the past fifty years, wouldn't we be calling coal "the safest industry the world has ever known"?
Chernobyl is still a waste land and will be for 1000 years .how many of those would make you happy
 
I keep hearing how dangerous and deadly nuclear power is, how we shouldn't have any, etc. The earthquake and tsunami hitting Japan has knocked out a number of their nuclear power plants, with the possibility of core meltdowns and releases of radiation. Japanese officials say they have already released small amounts of radiation to keep plant pressures manageable.

How safe is nuclear power? We've had it for more than fifty years now, while the nation has also been producing large amounts of electricity from coal-fired plants, oil-fired plants, hydroelectric etc.; plus small amounts from geothermal, wind, and solar.

In the last fifty years, how many people have died from nuclear energy plant mishaps? How many died at and near Chernobyl in Russia? How many at Three Mile Island, at plants in France, in Japan, and all other nuclear power plants around the world? How many in uranium mines where the uranium was used in power-generation plants, from transporting uranium, storage and transportation of nuclear waste, etc?

And how many have died from coal-generated energy? How many in coal mines, from black-lung disease, from air pollution from coal-fired plants, coal transportation mishaps, from accidents at coal power plants? And the same questions from oil-fired energy plants, oil fields and pumping plants, refineries, oil tanker mishaps, and the rest?

It's hard to evaluate the safety of each, if you don't know the facts. Each has now had a long time to compiles its relative safety record.

Anybody know the numbers for each?

In fact, if coal and oil generation had compiled the same safety record that nuclear plants have for the past fifty years, wouldn't we be calling coal "the safest industry the world has ever known"?
Why don't you make your post longer. I was nearly asleep.
 
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http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/03/deaths-per-twh-for-all-energy-sources.html

Coal is FAR more dangerous than nukes, in fact, wind power has four times the mortality rate. Rooftop solar energy has 11 times the mortality rate as nukes (because people fall off the roof while installing it.)

Deaths per trillion watt-hours:

Coal – world average 161 (26% of world energy, 50% of electricity)
Coal – China 278
Coal – USA 15
Oil 36 (36% of world energy)
Natural Gas 4 (21% of world energy)
Biofuel/Biomass 12
Peat 12
Solar (rooftop) 0.44 (less than 0.1% of world energy)
Wind 0.15 (less than 1% of world energy)
Hydro 0.10 (europe death rate, 2.2% of world energy)
Hydro - world including Banqiao) 1.4 (about 2500 TWh/yr and 171,000 Banqiao dead)
Nuclear 0.04 (5.9% of world energy)
Greenie weenie environmentalists played a large role in getting the US to start shutting down nuclear plants. Now greenie weenie environmentalists are taking another look at nuclear energy as a viable alternative to fossil fuel sourced energy the nation is totally unable to divorce itself from at the present.

U.S. Turns to Nuclear Power as States Phase Out Fossil Fuels (ens-newswire.com) 1-31-22

U.S. Turns to Nuclear Power as States Phase Out Fossil Fuels January 31, 2022
News Editor Energy, Latest News, RSS Comments Offon U.S. Turns to Nuclear Power as States Phase Out Fossil Fuels

WASHINGTON, DC, January 31, 2022 (ENS) – Two-thirds of U.S. states are considering how to safely install nuclear power to replace the coal, oil, and gas that are being phased out to prevent the worst consequences of climate change, a survey of the energy policies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia has found.
 
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