Sigh… Normal, decent, even smart human beings can be the source of so much silliness sometimes it almost becomes painful.

Last Saturday Amsterdam was the place of a large anti-nuclear protest, taking place in the ever-popular Dam Square. Normally it would be easy to dismiss such an event when one has nothing in common with the ideas or people present; in this case however, there were everyday citizens, concerned parents that even brought their children along, and it was obvious they were all nice people with a genuine worry — unfortunately, a misguided one.

I wonder how many of them actually took a moment to ponder what they were demanding in big bold letters — the end of nuclear energy, replacing it with alternatives such as wind or solar power. These are the same people who care about “global warming”, albeit what they do not seem to realise is that nuclear is by far the cleanest and safest form of power. Even taking into account the recent Fukushima incident and the older ones in Chernobyl and Three Miles Island (which had markedly less disastrous effects compared to media exaggerations), nuclear is safer than coal, wind and even solar. Until there is practical fusion available, nuclear power would have a drastic effect in reducing toxic emissions of various kinds (ironically, including radioactive particles from coal ash) while producing so much power that the human race could finally provide cheap and abundant heat, water and food for everyone. Something tells me our kids would prefer that world to one where they needed to ration their water and put on another blanket during winter — both likely scenarios when oil finally runs out.

The Register tells it as it is in a recent article.