Thread by @sfliberty

Everything bad you've heard about nuclear energy is a myth.

Nuclear is safer than wind. Cleaner than solar. More reliable than both.

Yet environmentalists hate it more than coal🧵.

If you believe we're facing climate doom, nuclear energy is literally our best shot to avoid it.

But decades of fear-mongering have turned the safest energy source into the most hated.

Time to bust some myths:

Myth #1: Nuclear Waste

"Nuclear waste will poison us for thousands of years!"

Reality: The waste from a reactor supplying YOUR electricity for an entire year? About the size of a brick. [1]

Only 5 grams of that is high-level waste—the weight of a sheet of paper. [1]

All civilian nuclear waste produced in the U.S. since 1950 would fit on a football field at 30 feet deep. [2]

Coal waste to power the same amount? That football field gets filled 2.5 times EVERY DAY. [2]

But somehow nuclear is the "dirty" energy?

Oh, and 97% of nuclear "waste" could be reused as fuel in certain reactors.

France, Japan, Germany, Belgium, and Russia already do this with plutonium recycling.

We're literally throwing away perfectly good fuel because of fear.

Myth #2: Nuclear Plants Are Fragile

Even at Fukushima—hit by a massive tsunami that killed 20,000 people—zero deaths from radiation. [3]

The plant was 40 years old and STILL contained the damage.

Modern nuclear plants in France are built to withstand earthquakes twice as strong as the 1000-year event calculated for each site. [5]

Also, a commercial reactor literally cannot explode like a nuclear bomb. Fuel enrichment is only 5%, bombs need much higher levels.

Myth #3: Nuclear Kills People

In 70 years, across 667 nuclear plants worldwide, only 3 major accidents occurred.

Combined death toll: 32 people. [6]

Nuclear's death rate: 90 per 1000TWh—THE LOWEST of any energy sector. [6]

Meanwhile: → Hydropower dams fail and kill thousands → Coal causes respiratory diseases → Wind turbines kill more people per TWh than nuclear

But nuclear gets the scary reputation. The propaganda worked.

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Get the free "How Not to Be an NPC" course:
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Check our sources:

[1] World Nuclear Association. "What Is Nuclear Waste and What Do We Do with It?" World Nuclear Association, world-nuclear.org/nuclear-essent…….

[2] Carbon Credits. "Nuclear Education: The World’s Shrinking Waste Line." Carbon Credits, carboncredits.com/nuclear-educat…….

[3] World Nuclear Association. "Safety of Nuclear Power Reactors." World Nuclear Association, world-nuclear.org/information-li…….

[4] International Atomic Energy Agency. "The Resilience and Safety of Nuclear Power in the Face of Extreme Events." IAEA Bulletin, iaea.org/bulletin/the-r…….

[5] World Nuclear Association. "Nuclear Power Plants and Earthquakes." World Nuclear Association, world-nuclear.org/information-li…….

[6] "What’s the Death Toll of Nuclear vs Other Energy Sources?" engineering.com/whats-the-deat…….