About nuclear safety: how safe is safe enough?

Nuclear safety relies on: a good design; quality construction; and safe operation. Nuclear safety must cope with potential human and component failures, in order to prevent any accident. This is prevention. However, should such an accident occur (and the designer must consider this possibility), the operator, by using the designed engineered safety features and the proper procedures, has to mitigate the consequences of the accident. This approach allows the engineer to assess the level of risk induced by nuclear power. However, this is a theoretical concept which cannot give the public a clear answer to the question-how safe is safe enough?. The answer obviously is not simple to handle, but public education and information about the benefits and risks of nuclear power combined with further reduction of the probability of events with severe consequence are the best ways of improvement.<
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