[iforgotpassword]

> Nuclear is not a panacea but railing against the technology because humans goofed up, then refused to pay more attention and do things correctly in the future is an irrational stance.

But we didn't even become more careful with existing reactors. The companies running them kept being textbook capitalists and cut costs wherever possible. Outsource maintenance to questionable Eastern European workers. Inspections reveal unexplainable micro fractures near the reactor core? Just declare it safe and carry on. Workers on-site monitoring the operations are retrained electricians, because well, both things have something to do with electricity right?

I'm not afraid the technology is inherently unsafe. I'm worried because it's run by companies maximizing profit, and regulated (indirectly) by politicians caring about getting re-elected, and maybe about their hometown/electoral district.

[VintageCool]

The Davis-Beisse reactor in Ohio was found in 2002 to have a boric acid leak that ate through 6 inches of steeling cladding, leaving only 3/8ths inch of steel holding in the high-pressure coolant.

A few months earlier, the company had claimed that "oh yeah, we checked that, everything's fine!" and employees were later convicted for providing false information to and hiding evidence of the leak from government inspectors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis%E2%80%93Besse_Nuclear_Po...

[inapis]

Fair point but I am not sure how it is any different from other risky industries. Aviation became safer (current Boeing fiascos not withstanding) over the past 2-3 decades where today an airliner crash makes global news.

Humans being terrible at something, at some time in the past, is not a sole reason to write off the technology. The response should be to rather focus on improving the process and policy rather than shrugging off nuclear which IPCC has admitted is necessary to meet our climate goals.

Most American's are very worried about dying from terrorism while most are actually being killed by heart attacks.

At a certain point it is a matter of what people want to believe and what is actually happening on the ground.