I read the recent Ben Jealous column describing nuclear mishaps as “cataclysmic.” But are they really?
Injuries, illness, and death from the incident at Fukushima is very low; same with Three Mile Island. Who knows about Chernobyl because of the ways in which the Soviets covered it up? But talk to the residents on Chicago’s South and West Sides who for too long suffered under the noxious cloud of coal. If we had gone more nuclear, all the slow-burn illnesses and quality of life issues which plagued those areas for years could have long ago been solved. The damage is too broad and too slow to really tally, but that does not mean it did not happen. Meanwhile, we have had nuclear reactors running safely in this state for decades, without those deadly pollutants literally suffocating some of our most vulnerable residents.
