I count 12 deaths in the US from nuclear related accidents in the US since 1955. [1].
Chernobyl, the worst recorded nuclear disaster, was directly responsible for 33 deaths and estimates on total attributable deaths due to health complications from radiation range from 4,000 to 60,000 [2].
In 2018, it is estimated that fossil fuel air pollution was responsible for over 8m deaths worldwide. [3]
Mortality rate by tWH isn't even close [4]. Fossil fuels are significantly more damaging both in terms of loss-of-life and habitability on this planet.
During and immediately following the Chernobyl incident, all of Europe and large portions of Asia were under warnings or restrictions due to radiation hazard concerns. Lives of some 450,000,000 people were disrupted for at least weeks, and in cases years and centuries.
Around the former site extending 50 km (30 mi) (a bureaucratic rather than scientific determination) is an exclusion zone which must be maintained for 300+ years.
Duration for which the former core and reactor itself will remain lethally radioactive extends to tens of thousands of years.
Both intervals greatly exceed the span of virtually all human institutions, as well as modern languages, writing systems, let alone civilisation itself.
Our measures and senses of risk are very poorly suited to such timeframes. (A problem also in addressing fossil fuel hazards.)
Chernobyl, the worst recorded nuclear disaster, was directly responsible for 33 deaths and estimates on total attributable deaths due to health complications from radiation range from 4,000 to 60,000 [2].
In 2018, it is estimated that fossil fuel air pollution was responsible for over 8m deaths worldwide. [3]
Mortality rate by tWH isn't even close [4]. Fossil fuels are significantly more damaging both in terms of loss-of-life and habitability on this planet.
1 -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reactor_accidents_in_t... 2 - https://ourworldindata.org/what-was-the-death-toll-from-cher... 3 - https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/c-change/news/fossil-fuel-air-p... 4 - https://www.statista.com/statistics/494425/death-rate-worldw...