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by sk1pper 2556 days ago
n=1, but my general takeaway from the show wasn't that nuclear is fundamentally flawed, it was that a series of pretty questionable choices by management and egregiously eschewing safety protocol lead to the accident. The graphite-tipped rods were also essential to the accident happening as well, but only after that series of bad choices had put the reactor in a such an extreme state. (Reading about the event on Wikipedia seems to confirm this take, but, of course I'm not pretending to have any more than the most basic layman's understanding of all this)
1 comments

There's a saying among pilots:

"Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect."

This is 10x more true with nuclear power. And you can add malfeasance, graft, corruption, ignorance of basic science, and generally every other flaw inherent in humanity to the list.

It totally is though. The general public understand this intuitively. What goes up must come down. And for the industry to work it requires a staggering amount of effort, coordination and training. That safety record can never be taken for granted.