Safety by the Numbers

Per unit of energy produced, nuclear sits among the safest energy sources we have, alongside wind and solar. Counting Chernobyl, Fukushima, and every known incident, nuclear has caused roughly 0.03 deaths per terawatt-hour. Coal causes about 24.6 through air pollution — hundreds of times more.

Modern reactor designs are fundamentally different from Chernobyl-era technology. Generation III+ reactors use passive safety systems that shut down automatically using gravity and natural circulation, requiring no human intervention or external power.