Coal or Nuclear: The Unintended Consequences of Electricity Generation

From the vantage point of 1975, it seems clear that substantial, unintended consequences have resulted from electricity production. While the cost of coal mining accidents have been recognized by society for some time, only in recent years has the public become aware of the full cost of black-lung (coal workers pneumoconiosis ),of the air pollution generated from burning coal in major cities,and of the very small, but non zero, probability of a disastrous accident with a light water reactor. In the last ten years there has been an extraordinary increase in the amount of regulation connected with electricity generation.