Nuclear Energy is Safe

Industry
reforms put in place after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania have vastly
improved worker training and the sharing of best practices and “lessons
learned” throughout the industry. These add to the defense-in-depth design of
nuclear plants that protected public health and safety – as numerous
independent health studies have shown – even during the TMI accident. The
technology is not risk-free – no one would or should claim otherwise – but
margins of safety are extremely high, and federal oversight exists in the form
of resident inspectors who are on-site at every nuclear power plant every day
of the year. Used nuclear fuel, a solid byproduct of this highly efficient form
of electricity production, is managed safely as well and has been transported
safely in the United States
for the past 40 years.