Comment by mpweiher

Why would you evacuate Long Island?

In Fukushima, there were no radiation deaths, and the long term effects of radiation on the population will be undetectable. The deaths that did occur were due to the unnecessary evacuations.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095758201...

So due to Radiophobia, not radiation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiophobia

The forced evacuation of 154,000 people ″was not justified by the relatively moderate radiation levels″, but was ordered because ″the government basically panicked″

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/science/when-radiation-is...

Personal note: the Fukushima accident turned me from a nuclear skeptic to a nuclear supporter. This happened quite a bit. At least for people who actually paid attention.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/21/pro-nu...

And remember that this was all due to a historically unprecedented earthquake and Tsunami that killed 18000 people and caused half a trillion dollars in damage (in 2025 dollars).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tōhoku_earthquake_and_tsu...

During that earthquake, more people died due to breaking dams than of radiation in that natural disaster. Are we dismantling our dams?

There is no 100% safe technology. Nuclear power is the safest form of electricity generation we have, although solar and wind are so close that the differences don't really matter.

According to this NASA study, nuclear power saved 1,8 million lives up to 2011, with many millions more lives saved in the future.

https://www.giss.nasa.gov/pubs/abs/kh05000e.html

On the flip-side, the most consequential negative health effects of Chernobyl and Fukushima came from turning off nuclear power plants and not building more.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142151...

If the US and the rest of Europe follow Germany's example they could lose the chance to prevent over 200,000 deaths and 14,000 MtCO2 emissions by 2035.

https://www.sciencespo.fr/department-economics/sites/science...

We estimate that the decline in NPP caused by Chernobyl led to the loss of approximately 141 million expected life years in the U.S., 33 in the U.K. and 318 million globally

And we absolutly know how to deal with the waste, and it's not particularly difficult. In fact, we have multiple ways of disposing of the small amounts of waste. NPPs are very secure against terrorism.