"I am a Green, and I entreat my friends in the movement to drop their wrongheaded objection to nuclear energy." — James Lovelock☢"There's no room for facts when our minds are occupied by fear." — Hans Rosling, Factfulness☢"Nuclear replaces coal and it works, and it's clean as hell in terms of greenhouse gas emissions." — Stewart Brand☢"Nuclear power remains the cleanest, most practical source of energy — less damaging than dams, less polluting than oil, less lethal than coal." — Richard Rhodes☢"Only nuclear power can now halt global warming." — James Lovelock, 2004☢"Because of climate change I reinvestigated the matter and discovered that I'd been misled." — Stewart Brand☢ "I am a Green, and I entreat my friends in the movement to drop their wrongheaded objection to nuclear energy." — James Lovelock☢"There's no room for facts when our minds are occupied by fear." — Hans Rosling, Factfulness☢"Nuclear replaces coal and it works, and it's clean as hell in terms of greenhouse gas emissions." — Stewart Brand☢"Nuclear power remains the cleanest, most practical source of energy — less damaging than dams, less polluting than oil, less lethal than coal." — Richard Rhodes☢"Only nuclear power can now halt global warming." — James Lovelock, 2004☢"Because of climate change I reinvestigated the matter and discovered that I'd been misled." — Stewart Brand☢
Issue 04 · February 2026 Biweekly · Environmental Intelligence
The Switch Stack
Where the numbers flip the narrative
Nuclear Fear & Nuclear Reality 4 Articles · Energy, Safety & Geopolitics
#01 #02 #03 #04 #05 #06 #07
The Investigation

The Safest Energy on Earth and Why We’re Terrified of It

14 min read

On February 28, a US-Israeli operation killed 1,348 people in Iran to prevent nuclear proliferation. In April 2023, Germany shut down its last nuclear reactor and restarted coal plants. Nuclear energy has killed fewer people in its entire history than coal kills every single day. The most dangerous thing about nuclear power is our fear of it.

Read the full story →
Also in this issue
The Briefing

Fear of Nuclear Has Killed More People Than Nuclear

8 min read

Fukushima evacuation: 2,300 dead. Fukushima radiation: 1. Germany shut down nuclear, restarted coal—1,100 additional deaths per year from air pollution. Nuclear kills 0.03 people per TWh. Coal: 24.6. The safest energy source on Earth, feared into irrelevance.
The Data

Deaths per Terawatt-Hour: The Energy Source Ranking Nobody Publishes

5 min read

Nuclear: 0.03. Wind: 0.04. Solar: 0.05. Gas: 2.8. Coal: 24.6. One football field of waste vs continents of coal ash. 1.84 million lives saved. 50 million medical procedures per year. The data the anti-nuclear movement does not cite.
The Editorial

The Glowing Paradise

10 min read

In the Chernobyl exclusion zone, wolves and European bison roam through abandoned Soviet apartment blocks. Thirty-eight years after the worst nuclear disaster in history, nature is thriving—precisely because humans left. The most radioactive place in Europe has become its most biodiverse.

About This Issue

All articles share the same fact-checked dataset. Key figures: Nuclear kills 0.03 people per TWh vs coal’s 24.6—an 820x difference. Fukushima radiation deaths: 1. Evacuation deaths: ~2,300. Germany’s nuclear phase-out: ~1,100 additional deaths per year (Jarvis et al., NBER). France: 95% low-carbon grid thanks to nuclear. Nuclear power has prevented 1.84 million deaths since 1971 (Kharecha & Hansen, NASA).

Data Sources

Our World in Data — Deaths per TWh (Markandya & Wilkinson, 2007). UNSCEAR — Fukushima & Chernobyl assessments. Jarvis, Deschenes & Jha — German nuclear phase-out (NBER, 2019). Kharecha & Hansen — Nuclear prevented deaths (ES&T, 2013). Ember / Sfen — France electricity data. WarCosts — Operation Epic Fury (2026).