Shakran...Reference my above post.
First off: Modern power plants can't have the kind of accidents we saw with chernobyl. Chernobyl was also a worst case situation, and even then the UN Scientific Committee for the Effects of Atomic Radiation estimates the ACTUAL death toll to be 34 or less.
During the 1990's the US averaged 45 coal mining deaths per year. Even if we suffered a chernobyl every year, according to the UN's casualty assesment, it would be less deadly than regular coal mining operations in the united states.
Also, by reprocessing, you can take the radioactive nuclear waste and remove the radioactive parts and stick them back into the reactor for a while longer (short version), thus creating far less radioactive waste, and what would be produced would be less hazardous since it would be largely inert.
The only reason reprocessing isn't allowed is because under the guise of 'preventing terrorism' carter outlawed it in the 1970's via executive order (IIRC) which just happenned to cripple the nuclear industry enough to keep it from outpacing fossil plants. It was never a scientifically sound decision as it required the formation of large waste pools which are a real hazard...a successfull terrorist attack on a waste pool would cause far more damage than upon a reactor.
Also, coal contains radioactive isotopes and coal plants gleefully release them into the atmosphere and out with the coal slag into rivers...They have argued, successfully, that limiting these emissions would be too costly.
As a result, coal plants release several times the TOTAL radioactive waste produced by nuclear plants into the atmosphere (note: Nuke plants don't put it into the atmosphere, which is the worst place to put it) and also into unprotected slag piles near rivers. See this address for an article providing an in depth explanation as well as references:
http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/...t/colmain.html
Oh, and I am pretty sure that picture you posted is of Three Mile Island, which, I have to point out, resulted in ZERO deaths. Modern Nuclear plants are called Post-TMI plants and refer to the changes that were made to make sure such an accident wouldn't happen again.
Attempts to argue that nuclear power is unsafe are simply idiotic...the evidence is in, the data have been collected, and nuclear power has been shown to safely and efficiently provide emission free non-depletable energy.
Even more ridiculous than the worry about disasters is the environmentalist argument, which is mostly just anti-tech and absolutely not good for the environment....I.e. get rid of the clean, safe energy source in favor of the old, dangerous energy source that puts thousands of tons of green house gasses into the atmosphere every year and pollutes our waterways, and depletes our fossil reserves.