"Nuclear accidents, on the other hand, have the potential of harming everyone on the planet in a year. Or less."

Almost certainly not - nuclear accidents, although dangerous, are unlikely to be planet threatening.

To be honest, I'm far more terrified by a sight that I have to endure every day i.e. places, which just a few years ago, were green fields, covered in endless, and never-ending housing and industrial developments. My alarm clock radio woke me this morning with some git droning on about how we need MORE housing. This view that the environment is a bottle of infinite volume into which we can pour an infinite amount of stuff is far more dangerous and toxic than any nuclear power plant. Our species is under the impression that we own the planet and that it is here solely for our benefit and that we can do anything we like to it; this attitude will lead to our extinction long before any leaks of radioactivity!