[LiberConservative]

I heard Rush Limbaugh say, “Nuclear power has killed fewer Americans than Ted Kennedy’s car.”

Rush is wrong on this one. At least three Americans have died in nuclear reactor accidents. One was in Arco, Idaho in 1961. Their bodies were so radioactive they had to be buried in lead-lined coffins.

[chimera]

The SL-1 reactor at the NRTS in Idaho (as it was known then) was a prototype test reactor for the military, to be used in remote locations where conventional power generation was limited. It was not a civilian power reactor. The casualties you refer to were the reactor crew made up of military personnel.

Rush's bromide refers to the safety record of commercial, civilian nuclear energy in this country. The only fatalities I know of there were non-nuclear related, such as the one accident a few years ago in Virginia (I think) where some maintenance workers walked into a live steam leak (basically cuts you in half). There have been some electrical accidents as well. But those were not unique to the nuclear aspects of the plant.

[A. Patriot]

for years I had a bumper sticker on the rear of my pickup truck that read, “Ted Kennedy’s car has killed more people than my gun”.

[BILL_C]

At least three Americans have died in nuclear reactor accidents. One was in Arco, Idaho in 1961. Their bodies were so radioactive they had to be buried in lead-lined coffins.

That was at SL-1 but it was military. How about “United States Civilian Nuclear power has killed fewer Americans than Ted Kennedy’s car.”