Re: deaths from various methods of generating electricity

[John Cameron <jrcamero@facstaff.wisc.edu>]

Title: Re: deaths from various methods of generating electric

Gary Isenhower wrote:

"....  A better question perhaps is whether such activities are

as safe as comparable activities like hydroelectric generation.  I don't

have exact numbers, but I believe that deaths due to hydroelectric power

generation are far in excess of deaths due to accidental criticalities.

The construction of Hoover dam alone killed several tens of workers."

Dear Colleagues:

The following list is from the book The Good News about Radiation by  John Lenihan published in 1993 by Medical Physics Publishing (out of print) Its sales did not warrant reprinting. It is an excellent book for the public. It would be nice to have some group  subsidize the reprinting. My wife and I subsidized the first printing.  I am considering scanning the book and making it part of the Virtual Radiation Museum (VRM) on the web. Adding the  9 criticality deaths from before 1965 wouldn't change the general results much.

From p. 103 of TGNAR by Lenihan

DEATHS BETWEEN 1969 AND 1986 RESULTING FROM SEVERE ACCIDENTS TO GENERATE ELECTRIC POWER

Energy Source           no. of severe accidents number of deaths*

coal mining                     62                      3600

oil (refinery fires, transportation)    57                      2070

natural gas (fire, explosion)   24                      1440

hydroelectric (dam failures)    8                       3839

nuclear                         1                       31

* immediate deaths only

Best wishes,  John

--
John R. Cameron (jrcamero@facstaff.wisc.edu)
2678 SW 14th St. Gainesville, FL 32608
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