Nuclear industry myth number one is they are absolutely safe and will be safe forever. Then we keep seeing news articles like these on a regular basis. M

French nuclear leak

To see the entire article, go to this link:
Uranium liquid leak in southern France - Europe - MSNBC.com

Uranium leaks into 2 southern France rivers

Solution spills from reservoir; authorities place bans on water use

PARIS - Liquid containing traces of unenriched uranium leaked Tuesday at a nuclear site in southern France, and some of the solution ran into two rivers, France's nuclear safety agency said.

Authorities banned the consumption of well water in three nearby towns and the watering of crops from the two rivers. Swimming, water sports and fishing were also banned.

A spokeswoman for the nuclear safety agency, Evangelia Petit, said about 7,925 gallons of solution containing uranium spilled at a factory at the Tricastin nuclear site, about 25 miles from the historic city of Avignon.

Another nuclear safety agency official, Charles-Antoine Louet, said the liquid contained about 794 pounds of unenriched natural uranium, which he said is toxic but only slightly radioactive.

It said the uranium, while not "very radioactive," is "excessively dangerous" for people if ingested.

Uranium liquid leak in southern France - Europe - MSNBC.com

Busting myths would be more effective if you weren't attacking strawmen. No one said anything is absolutely, 100% forever effective or safe. That's just silly talk. I bet you we won't see ZOMG LOLZ LOLZ ABANDONE NUUUUUUUUUUUUUCULARZ! from the french either. Because they aren't insane. They know it's an excellent investment.

The major danger, as said in the article, is material toxicisity, not radioactivity. Many energy sources can have a freak accident that leak toxic chemicals into water supplies. That's no reason to abandon use of that industry. If there were a spill of something else toxic into the river, I guess we should never use those facilities either, right? I mean really. Come on. Get real. Sometimes mining causes water pollution too. I guess we should never mine either.

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And that is the apathy toward safety that leads to these incidents. Therefore they keep happening. Each time nuke energy apologists keep up the excuses case by case, but what we have now is a track record. That track record does not prove the point that nuclear energy is a safe investment for the future.