re: #108 ryannon

We can hit this ball back and forth for weeks.

[Link: naturalscience.com…]

But living here as I do, I can affirm that all is not as well as Areva (they had to change their name from Cogema due to accumulated bad press) would like the world to think.

So they found radiation, but no connection to the leukemia which they lead the article with.

But let’s assume there’s an actual problem. It’s solvable. The amount of radiation exposure released by coal-burning power plants is comparable to that released by nuclear plants during a TMI-style incident, and is spread over a wider area for a longer period of time. Covering vast swaths of desert with solar panels, or of prairie with windmills, is ecologically devastating, and the many of the materials used in each are highly toxic.

In short, nothing is without risk. The risk of disease, exposure and poor diet that occur when energy isn’t available to cook and clean with far outweighs even the most extreme risks caused by radiation exposure, by several orders of magnitude. Waiting around for a risk-free solution is a death sentence.

And although death is the only risk-free state, it isn’t acceptable to most.