What stands between us and abundant clean energy is not physics, engineering, or economics. It is a cultural fear—a deep, reflexive anxiety about the danger of radiation that has shaped public opinion, education, regulatory frameworks, and policy choices for three generations.
This fear has cost humanity more than almost any other scientific misunderstanding of the modern age.
The Promise We’ve Postponed
If nuclear energy had been allowed to scale naturally after the 1970s, analysts estimate that:
- atmospheric carbon might be almost 100 gigatons lower,
- millions of lives lost to air pollution would have been saved,
- energy prices would be lower and far more stable,
- and nations would be less dependent on volatile fuel markets.
Every credible study shows the same thing: Nuclear energy is the safest, cleanest, and most reliable high-density power source humanity has discovered. In the late 1970s, France nuclearized almost all of its fossil-fueled generation. Their experience—abundant clean electricity, minimal carbon emissions, low household power costs—is just a modest glimpse of what widespread nuclear adoption could have provided globally.
We could be living in an age of clean plenty. Instead, we argue about scarcity.
Why Didn’t This Happen?
It didn’t happen because in the late 1950s and ’60s, at the dawn of the nuclear age, the world became deeply—and understandably—frightened. Atmospheric nuclear weapons tests spread fear across continents. Scientists and policy leaders adopted an extremely cautious framework to predict the effect of radiation exposure: the Linear No-Threshold (LNT) model. The model assumes that any dose of radiation, no matter how small, carries health risks.
This was not based on low-dose human data. It was impossible to find low-dose harm in the data. So the model made a precautionary extrapolation from high-dose observations. This was a choice made because the world needed a simple, conservative way to discourage nuclear brinkmanship. In retrospect, it helped shape the visceral global fear of any nuclear radiation.
But the unintended result was that a fear designed to restrain warfare began to restrain peaceful technology and the path to a safer, cleaner world.
Fear Hardened Into Dogma
Over time, the LNT—and the anxieties that accompanied it—ossified into regulation. Agencies mandated that nuclear plants must prevent even radiation releases so small that they are drowned out by natural background variation. Evacuation standards assumed danger at levels far below those ever shown to produce harm. Licensing processes grew lengthier, more expensive, and more extremely risk averse.