If you think nuclear technology (or any other for that matter) is inherently dangerous and deadly, you really need to read this article to hear of something that might help put things in perspective.
There is a single substance that is known to be the major chemical constituent found in all cancers known to man. This same substance is the primary chemical also found in every deadly bacteria. Without this chemical, both cancer and bacteria would simply die. It is found in the most acidic chemical mixes we know of, including hydrochloric and sulfuric acids. These all have a single common chemical substance
The substance can be referred to as dihydrogen monoxide, or DHMO. There are websites that describe the dangers from DHMO in more detail, such as http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html, but the truth is, every industry that uses DHMO or is critically dependent on it will tell you that it is not harmful in and of itself. This includes their engineers and managers — they could make this claim without any regret other than the time lost in the effort. These large chemical conglomerates could (and would) have their best chemists and scientists claim that DHMO is not a danger to the public, and there is no need to worry.
Natural disasters involving DHMO have been known to kill tens of thousands of people in recent history. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 3,000 U.S. citizens died in 2013 from inhalation of DHMO alone. In other words, DHMO kills. We know what this substance is and what it can do, but there are basically no laws or regulations preventing industry and commercial entities from introducing this into our food. As such, this is currently in almost all of our food and is routinely added to many food products. Every vegetable and fruit currently farmed in the U.S. has this chemical added to it when it is grown, and there are no regulations or laws preventing this. Furthermore, effectively every disease and health problem we know of in life requires DHMO to operate, and yet we are doing nothing to prevent this material from being in our stores, homes and environment.
So, given that everything stated so far is indeed fact, would you be willing to boycott DHMO utilities, remove it from our food and environment and punish those who have promoted it in the past? Would you be willing to organize and petition the government to institute laws controlling this chemical or even abolishing it altogether to prevent it from ever again being in our food or released freely to the environment? If so, you may have been told the truth about DHMO so far, but not the whole truth.
DHMO is di-hydrogen (two hydrogen atoms) mon-oxide (single oxygen atom), or H2O. Yes, it is water, and yes, everything stated above is true about water, but selectively chosen and presented to make it appear pernicious, evil and wrong. Cherry-picking facts to bias an opinion is not a difficult thing to do — something to think about anyway.
Robert Hayes is an Associate Professor of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at NC State.