The nuclear accident underway in Japan does not raise doubts about the safety of nuclear power, and calls to abandon it altogether are just another example of the strange irrationality that surrounds the issue.
This, from Cosmos. The magazine calls into question the media surrounding the story.
From the article...
Why is it that, faced with an unfolding nuclear accident in Japan, even normally cautious news outlets quickly descend into a seething, breathless recounting of what seems like the Armageddon itself?
The epic struggle by the Japanese to cope with multiple calamities after a record earthquake and a massive tsunami boggles the mind. More than 13,000 people are feared dead and a swathe of towns wiped off the map.
But following the global news coverage over the last few days, you would think that a reactor meltdown, should it occur, will be the gravest threat to the devastated nation so far. And that the incident was calling into question the safety of nuclear power altogether.
This is balderdash. Yes, appalling disasters occur, technologies fail and people die. Buildings, bridges and even whole cities can crumble in the face of nature’s fearsome onslaught. So why would we expect nuclear facilities to be any different?
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