Always fighting the last war - who cares about tornado alley?

Back on Tuesday, April 12, I wrote a post entitled "Always fighting the last war - who cares about earthquake zones?" The point of the post was that people were getting so uptight about nuclear power plants near earthquake zones that they forgot that most nuclear accidents have nothing to do with earthquakes.

So I wrote that post and moved on to other important topics, such as taking your kids out to eat.

But time moved on, and the winds blew across the globe, and they continued to blow across the globe, and then the southeastern United States had a rather nasty weather weekend.

So now the topic of discussion is How close to Shearon Harris nuclear facility did the tornadoes get?

And next we'll worry about other weather, or operator error, or whatever threatening a nuclear facility.

But even if we eliminate nuclear facilities altogether, we won't be safe, because nuclear accidents are not one of the leading causes of death in this country (or in any country). Sure, mushroom clouds look really really scary, but they're nothing compared to heart disease, all types of cancers, and other things that really kill people. Heck, even flu and pneumonia killed 50,000 people in 2007, but you don't see the Department of Homeland Security mandating flu shots.