The chart below comes from an an article out of the Journal of Physicians and Surgeons, in PDF format. Risks from a wide range of events and phenomena are ranked according to days of lost life expectancy. The risks at top are measured in thousands of days in lost expectancy. As you drop down through the chart, lesser risks are measured in days of lost life expectancy. As you can see, risks from nuclear power occupy the very lowest position -- a small fraction of a single day of lost life expectancy on average -- if calculated by government sources.
And yet, Germany's government and much of the entire nation of Germany has panicked itself into a dangerous and expensive restricting of its own future energy resources. Sometimes government can undo damage that government has done previously -- at least in part. Future German governments will curse what Merkel's government has done, but they will deal with it -- and almost certainly return to nuclear power out of necessity.
But they will be forced to buy massive amounts of power from neighboring countries at much higher rates than would have been necessary if they had preserved their nuclear power resources. And when Germany does choose to go nuclear again, it will have to buy reactors and fuels from other countries -- countries which instead of panicking, chose to develop safer, cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable nuclear reactors.
Cross-posted from Al Fin Energy
We will revisit the issue of risk in the near future, since the abuse and misuse of risk continues to play such a devastating role in governmental, non-governmental, and inter-governmental policymaking in Europe and the Anglosphere.
Stupidity has its own rewards.
ReplyDeleteThe nuclear "risk" figure is based on the linear no threshold theory (LNT) which is evidence free and almost certainly wholly wrong. The real nuclear risk is even more non-existent, but this does for any serious argument.
ReplyDeleteThe fear whipped up by Greenpeace here in Germany over nuclear power is backed by their constant showing of film footage they stole of a low level waste storage facility which had been badly managed. They always present it as "High Level" waste "irradiating and contaminating the ground above it."
ReplyDeleteFukushima certainly hasn't helped because they are able to convince the gullible that every nuclear plant is a Chernobyl waiting to happen, vulnerable to terrorist attack and to natural disaster. Of course the country can't meet its power needs from wind and solar - but that is what the Greenstrife "experts" have sold - at vast expense to the taxpayer in subsidised panels and windfarms.
Not many people know that these subsidies end up funding Greenstrife and Fiends of the Earth, bot of which are subsidised heavily by the 'renewable power' industry as these are front companies...