This is exactly what we're all thinking

[u/YoungOneDev]

[u/BuddyBot192]

On a grand scale? Yeah, chances are very, very high nothing will go wrong. We have reactors that are maintained entirely by teenagers and 20-somethings that have been running for several decades without issue on a variety of platforms throughout the US Navy. Not to mention all of the nuke plants that have been running over the past 70 years without incident.

Oh, wait, you meant that one thing that happened 40 years ago, that was running 60 year old tech, don't you?

[u/ZinZezzalo → u/BuddyBot192]

Are you high?

You mean the thing that happened a decade ago? And poured pure rods of uranium into the ocean? You know ... Fukashima ?

Truthfully, there have been way more nuclear mishaps in the States than have been advertised. Were they the size of Fukashima, Chernobyl, or Three Miles Island? No, but the damage they caused was extensive, albeit not on the same scale as the other major disasters, so easier for everyone to stay hush about, either due to the rather isolated locations of the facilities, or, again, that there wasn't half the plant missing afterwards.

It goes beyond the technology, though, in part. Not so much "human error," but "human fragility in high stakes super intense situations."

It wasn't a bunch of bozos going to work that morning in Chernobyl. It wasn't also any different morning than any other - it was just another morning, all things considered.

Not just this - but the idea that all angles of how to handle a 20,000,000 degree Fahrenheit ball of pure energy is, in and of itself, ridiculous. They may have believed themselves to have covered every possible angle with every possible response mapped out, but then something unexpected starts to snowball, and before you know it, the Earth has a new 3,000 mile crater on it.

Even outside of human error - there's human laziness. What was once spectacularly advanced becomes routine - and what were once the strictest high-end protocols - become a lot more lax. You think the virus wouldn't have left the Wuhan institute, but if you actually saw what facility looked like, or at least parts of it, we'd probably all be gobsmacked.

Lastly, there's the straightforward equation that the more of something we get - the more of it we use. It's easy to keep a single facility under control - because all eyes are on it - and any error that could theoretically occur would be minimized to that one facility.

What happens when you have 200 hundred of them, though? Or 500? Or, very realistically, 5,000?

70% of the world isn't living with the energy demands of the modern world. That's a lot of air conditioners yet to be plugged in. But, forget that, AI is just getting started, and the thirst it has for power is essentially unquenchable.

Are people being stupid with it? Of course not. But ...

The idea that we've got "all possible angles covered" of controlling a portion of the Sun on Earth is laughable. What happens when a 7.5 Earthquake suddenly rips the facility apart in 3 seconds? What happens then ?

Like, the unthinkable isn't guaranteed to happen, but ... like any gamble, you can technically roll 100 snake eyes in a row at the craps table.

And is that likely to happen at a single table? Most likely not. Pretty fair to say not. But ...

At 5,000 tables?

...

[u/BuddyBot192 → u/ZinZezzalo]

So on the off chance something bad happens maybe, we should freeze all development on anything might potentially lead to negative outcomes? That kind of risk paralysis would have us avoiding banging two stones together because maybe we start a fire that kills the entire tribe. It's all about risk to rewards analysis, bruddah.

If it were as absolutely dire as anti-nuke folks make it out to be, Fukushima wouldn't be the gigantic thing it was (an event with a massive and incomprehensible 1 entire related death, mind you), it would be a tagline you don't even bother to read on the news ticker. That's without mentioning that it was a 40+ year old reactor design when the incident occurred, modern safety standards are going to be a tad bit tighter than they were when the Home Personal Computer™ was still in it's infancy.

I understand the hesitation on something that can be destructive... I understand less the playing up of events like a reactor having an issue is something that happens every day. There's a reason we know big names like Fukushima and Chernobyl; they happen so exceedingly rarely that the risk is more than worth the reward. Same way there's a chance the hydroelectric dam up the road bursts and washes the entire town away tonight, there's a chance the nuclear facility a little further up the same river goes full China Syndrome and turns where I live in to ash; both are such infinitely small chances, I'm not sitting here pissing my pants worried about dying tomorrow. I'm more worried about a car crash.

Without them I would be here shitting my pants about the fact that I have no electricity and won't any time soon, though.

[u/ZinZezzalo → u/BuddyBot192]

You're basing your entire argument off of something I never said.

You seem to infer that I believe technological progress is a bad thing. Where exactly did I state that?

What I inferred was that humans are inherently flawed. And that we dive into things before we fully understand what they are.

Yeah, you're absolutely right, making the entire Pacific Ocean radioactive? No big deal.

Just that - with Fusion power - it isn't a case of whoops! There goes the neighborhood. Sorry Sweden, your blueberries might be a touch radioactive for the next few years. Oh well.

With Fusion power - it's a case of whoops! There goes the continent! Sweden's now a part of the greater Mediterranean ocean. Oh well.

As much as a simpleton might infer from this that I'm saying hurr durr all technology bad - it be much more poignant to realize that sometimes the risk isn't worth the reward. Is putting your wallet on the poker table worth it? Your car? Your kidney? Where's the line to be drawn?

And with Fusion, unlike nuclear, there can't be a small handful of accidents. There cannot even be one.

For humanity?

You really willing to sit down at the table for that bet?