Re: At the risk of...
Why is everyone so neurotic about nuclear fission power? Because when things go wrong, they can go wrong in a BIG way.
I wonder, though: when you say that "when things go wrong, they can go wrong in a BIG way", what do you have in mind? Because two of the three worst nuclear accidents in all time, Fukushima and Three Mile Island, have not claimed a single soul as far as nuclear power is concerned – and in the case of Three Mile Island, not a single soul, period.
Now how many people did die in the third worst oil industry accident of all time? I bet it was more than zero.
I guess the possible evacuation requirement of the most populous metropolitan area on the planet is not worthy of concern - or did everyone forget that little part of this topic?
It would have been if that was the case; alas, it wasn't, Tokyo was never at danger. In fact, recent studies of the Fukushima evacuation concluded that forcing people out of the area claimed more lives than would be lost if they were told to stay put:
(...) [T]he “Reconstruction Headquarters” has reported approximately 1100 disaster-related (premature) deaths among the evacuees, due to psychosomatic effects (67%) and disruption of medical and social welfare facilities (18%) (Saji 2013, Table A5). *
Also, the waste lasts hundred of thousands of years and can contaminate a huge area if containment fails, as well.
Yes, it can leave a huge area about as contaminated as... The beaches where my family would spend summer vacation when I was a kid. Not much of a disaster, then – specially if compared to recent incidents such as the BT oil spill.
So, in other words, it is the SCALE of a single incident that is of concern, not simply the odds of the incident occurring in the first place.
This is a bit like that argument against flying – "oh, sure airplanes kill less people relative to number of passengers than cars, but on the other hand each car accident kills only a few people, while a single plane crash can kill HUNDREDS!" – which ignores the fact that, if a plane crashes with me inside, it makes no difference to me whether other people also kick the bucket, as I won't be around to miss them anyway.
Likewise, whether a given energy source kills a little people every day, or hundreds in a single snafu, is irrelevant to the deceased – the only thing that makes a difference is how much people get stuffed over time.