"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" R.J.Oppenheimer
The word “Nuclear” tends to bring only one image to mind (an image much like the one above). Nuclear weapons have only ever been used in warfare twice. Both in 1945, when the United States of America destroyed the Japanese cites of Nagasaki and Hiroshima with 1st generation atomic weapons.
The total death toll from nuclear weapons reaches approximately 340,000. Never mind the countless square miles of land that have been destroyed and ruined for future generations. There are entire islands that have been blown off the map completely.
Nuclear Fusion has been perfected in bomb form. The Russian ‘Tsar Bomba’ is the most powerful measured nuclear bomb, with a yield of 50 mega tonnes ( that is the equivalent of 50,000,000 tonnes of dynamite).
I think we are justified to be fearful of this technology. Thus, the negative aspect of the word nuclear is fair but more than that, it is important. Not so that we should stop exploring nuclear energy, but that we remember the horrific past this technology has.
Imagine if all that time and effort, research and development, testing and planning had instead gone into Nuclear Energy and not nuclear weaponry. Would we have an energy crisis now?
murrayashmole 