OH AND BULL FUCKING SHITWhile I firmly believe nuclear power has a major role to play in the energy market, I do also believe it must be respected and treated with appropriate caution. Yes, you can get cancer from too much sunlight - but we don't ban solar-generated electricity for that. Nuclear fuels have a similar ability to kill yet far more people die of overexposure to sunlight (cancer) than have people killed by radiation. No denying there are some such fatalities. Please read the linked article to get some understanding:
Nuclear Fatality at Wood River Junction | Yankee Classic Article - New England Today
I was very close to the events described. A friend was on the ambulance crew involved; he was exposed to radiation, lots of radiation, from the first victims being transported. He died of pervasive cancer a very few years later. Was his death caused by radiation? Almost surely. But more certainly because, at the time, the dangers were not fully understood and precautions that could have been taken were not.
But that does not make it logical to ban nuclear usage than it might be logical to roof over the entire planet to keep people from being dangerously sunburned.
The dangers of radiation were EXTREMELY well known by oh...the 1920s.
Just because your idiot friend didn't know or didn't care...does not mean that the dangers were not fully understood.