> My guess is that deaths caused by this (associated with nuclear power), if at all measurable, would be orders of magnitude lower than deaths from the extraction and pollution associated with fossil fuels (Per GWh).
The competition isn't fossil fuels. Everyone wants to get rid of them.
When those regulations were introduced, the only renewables were hydro. And nobody was worried about the tiny amounts of radiations coming from coal plants, it was the soot that killed people.
Still, the "green" movement in Europe have been fighting nuclear power since at least the 80s, usually with more fervor than they've been fighting fossil fuels. The nuclear scare must have been easy to sell (and so an easy source of contributions), especially in the years after Chernobyl. With catastrophic effects both for the local environment and the climate.
Utopianists may indeed see nuclear as a threat to their dream of a perfect world. To me, nuclear is simply one of several energy sources with very low impact to the environment and climate, one that we _could_ have elected to produce at a low price. And still can.
Well good thing on river hydro is a separate category from renewables and noone is suggesting going back to it.
All of the examples of cheap nuclear power are ridden with corruption scandals and incredibly unreliable.
If you decide the CCP are suddenly trustworthy and ignore that finance and insurance have costs then the very limited fraction of nuclear power that can be produced might be both, but that doesn't make mining uranium any less horrific.
Cry bullying about the mean greens that have never been in power and only rarely held minority coalition positions just makes you look pathetic.
The competition isn't fossil fuels. Everyone wants to get rid of them.
The competition is renewables.