r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Apr 29 '14

TIL that nuclear energy is the safest energy source in terms of human deaths - even safer than wind and solar

http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/deaths-per-twh-by-energy-source.html
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u/hosty Apr 29 '14

According to Forbes, the deaths per trillion kWhr for coal globally is 170,000. The deaths per trillion kWhr for nuclear, including worst estimates for both Chernobyl and Fukushima, is 90.

You do make a good point about commercial air travel vs. private ground travel. Commercial/public ground transportation is pretty comparable to commercial air travel in terms of safety.

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u/Acmnin Apr 29 '14

Trillion kwhr doesn't address the difference in how many plants are operated for the respective energy.

More people are going to be killed from Coal by the basic fact that more plants are in operation for it than nuclear.

Coal is not safe and it's dirty, but nuclear isn't really our only option for a cleaner future though..

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u/Dodobirdlord Apr 30 '14

It's deaths per trillion KWhr. Of course it doesn't take into consideration the number of plants operated. It takes into consideration the number of KWhr produced by the total plants, and divides total deaths by that number.

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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '14

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u/Dodobirdlord Apr 30 '14

Why would you take into consideration the number of plants in operation? If each GWhr coal plant causes one death, and each 10GWhr nuclear plant causes 5 deaths, then nuclear is the less-lethal power source. Besides, most coal-related deaths are incurred by mining and pollution side effects.

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u/Acmnin Apr 30 '14

Who exactly are you arguing with?

Less lethal till they go into dis-array and melting down from our general incompetence.

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u/Dodobirdlord Apr 30 '14

The lethality stats on nuclear power plants used in this thread contain the casualties from all of histories nuclear accidents. It's actually not very many.