Neil Overy’s attack on nuclear safety (Important questions of safety the pro-nuclear lobby dare not ignore, October 17) is not only nonsense but stale nonsense that has been proven wrong for decades. Nuclear power has by far the best safety record of any energy technology, including coal, gas, hydro, solar and wind, and the least waste problem. In 60 years since it began, accidents in nuclear power have killed in total fewer than 100 people. Accidents in coal, oil, hydro and gas have killed tens of thousands of people. The effects of long-term exposure to low radiation are well known: there are none. Radiation is utterly natural. The radiation we get from nature is hundreds of times greater than that from nuclear power. The radiation released in the Fukushima accident exposed the public to less than some populations get naturally. The radiation from Chernobyl, the world’s worst nuclear accident, has killed fewer than 60 people, according to the Chernobyl Forum, the most comprehensiv...
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