Apocalypse Never

US government web site at energy.gov has 5 interesting facts about TMI. Basically, no one was injured, no long term health impacts, and there was no environmental impact.

Instead of illustrating safety, Hollywood and the media basically killed an energy source.

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Zaporizhzhia is keeping the energy source in people’s minds - as did Fukushima.

Armchair quarterbacking doesn’t eliminate the fear that was here at the time. We weren’t here then, but I’ve heard all about it from multiple people who were.

Nuclear is terrific, but it has some huge cons to it and one of those is, “what if?” (Others are sourcing and disposing of the fuel.)

Facts are facts. Energy.gov

You can also google the harm done to the miners, etc. :wink: Facts are facts.

There is no energy source without cons that I know of. Nuclear has some big ones, as do fossil fuels. Both have mining issues - so does solar with some of its components.

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My point is that many people erroneously point to TMI as a disaster - it was not.

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It was a public relations disaster for the nuclear power industry.

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TMI was the event that brought concerns as an impressionable child. However other nuclear mishaps since then worry me more. Not saying I’m totally opposed for the US… but in a world full less than ideal leaders and situations (especially Chernobyl aftermath and wartime risks), it does give me pause.

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One issue is that sources of electricity that are small and decentralized will only cause decentralized problems, which do not make the news.

One time years ago I was traveling and stopped at a gas station to fill up and find a bathroom. The bathroom was out back. The gas station was selling tomatoes. In finding the bathroom I discovered the tomato field – which was littered with piles and piles and piles of old lead-acid batteries. I did not buy any of the tomatoes.

Little problems like this do not make the news. Repeat it enough times and you nonetheless have a problem. Three Mile Island made the news, but you can kill more people by repeating small environmental problems over and over again.

The entire world is going to need to do a very good job of recycling all of those solar panels and lithium batteries if we want to avoid repeating the tomato problem many times in many places.

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You can thank Jane Fonda for killing Nuclear power in the US.

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