With a tsunami having damaged a nuclear power plant in Japan, releasing some radiation, it is natural that questions would be raised about whether adequate precautions have been taken to guard against nuclear accidents not just in Japan but worldwide - including in Tennessee.
But nuclear power is a sensitive topic, and emotional discussions of it can hide the fact that so far no radiation-related deaths have been linked to the damaged plant in Japan. And in the United States, even our worst nuclear incident, at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, neither killed nor seriously injured anyone.
You may have read in the Times Free Press that a Chattanooga man has been arraigned on charges of falsifying safety records last summer at a reactor being built at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tenn. Is that a "minor" thing? Of course not! There is a reason for safety protocols at nuclear plants, and if the worker broke the law, he appropriately could face prison.
But the weight of historical evidence in U.S. nuclear energy production shows that it is safe here. Unduly clamping down on nuclear power in this country would be a serious overreaction to the events in Japan.
Ironically, the world does face nuclear threats which, unfortunately, most countries are not taking seriously enough: The radical Muslim regime in Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons, and Communist North Korea apparently already has them.
Unstable Iran has promoted terrorism for decades and says Israel should be wiped off the map. Communist North Korea regularly threatens war on free South Korea, and it even torpedoed a South Korean naval vessel in 2010, murdering 46 sailors.
So which do you think is more dangerous: peaceful U.S. nuclear power production that has an excellent safety record, or the possession of nuclear weapons by nations whose actions have demonstrated their violent intentions again and again?