safety
after fukushima someone noted that major accidents happen every 25 years or so. based on a sample size of two. nuclear power is 6% of the world's energy production. they calculated that if nuclear power provided all of the world's energy, we'd have a major fukunobyl event every year. and twice most years. hrm. that's assuming people are stupid beasts. which maybe *they* are. but i find the position rather insulting. okay. in 1950 commercial airlines carried some 10 thousand passengers. in 1970 they carried 100 million. in 2010, some 1 billion. in 1950 there were some 100 fatal accidents. if you apply the nuclear accident logic, you'd expect there to be 1 million fatal accidents in 1970. and 10 million in 2010. everybody panic! not. actual numbers were somewhat lower than that. ie about 200 fatal accidents worldwide every year. that's right. aviation safety improved by a factor of 100,000. ie five orders of magnitude. there's really no reason why nuclear power can't do the same thing. course that would mean we'd have to abandon the design that runs on the same highly enriched uranium used to make nuclear bombs. which would rob the military of weapons so powerful they can't be used. which when one thinks about it for an attosecond, is a good thing (tm).