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Public Concerns About Nuclear Power



Frontline: Public fear of nuclear power is irrational "risk perception." Nuclear experts conduct methodical "risk analysis" and conclude that nuclear power is safe.



Response: This claim is arrogant and elitist. There is a substantial basis for the public's fears. Environmental devastation has been inflicted for the last 50 years upon dozens of the Department of Energy sites involved in the U.S. nuclear weapons program, posing potentially large threats to nearby communities. Over fifty million gallons of intensively radioactive, potentially explosive, high-level radioactive waste at the Hanford Reservation in Washington state provide stark evidence of what happens when these problems are left to the "experts." Plans to reprocess spent fuel to extract plutonium only compound the nuclear waste problem. Moreover, nuclear experts' "risk analyses" usually ignore the crucial difference between voluntary and involuntary risk. The public has virtually no say in nuclear power development and its hazards, and so is less willing to accept the involuntary risks associated with things nuclear than the voluntary risks that they choose to take in everyday life, like driving or flying.
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