Some facts you might not be aware of:
America’s Nuclear Navy is one of the oldest and largest nuclear organizations in the world, and has the world’s best safety record of any industry of any kind. In terms of work hazards apart from combat, it is safer to work on a U.S. nuclear submarine or aircraft carrier than it is to
sit at a desk trading stocks.
Thousands upon thousands of people, 22,000 people at any one time, have lived, worked, eaten and slept within a stone’s throw of these nuclear reactors for 60 years with no adverse effects from radiation at all.
Annual radiation doses to Navy personnel have averaged only 0.005 rem/year (5 mrem/year; 0.05 mSv/year), a thousand times less than the federal 5 rem/year allowed for radworkers. Normal background radiation in the United States varies from 100 mrem/year to over 1,000 mrem/year.
The Nuclear Navy has logged over 5,400 reactor years of accident-free operations and travelled over 130 million miles on nuclear energy, enough to circle the earth 3,500 times.
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Myself, I served for 4 years aboard a nuclear submarine. In that 4 year's time, 6 months were in the shipyard, and 3 1/2 years in operation, 3 of which were out to sea, 2 1/2 of which were fully submerged. My "field day" areas were the aux machinery space and the reactor compartment. I've got roughly 3-4 full hours inside the reactor compartment when it was shut down - to clean. The Navy loves to clean things. I wore a film badge the entire time I was below decks attached to the sub and a pocket dosimeter whenever I entered the reactor compartment. My total radiation dose for those 4 years was about ONE FIFTH the background radiation I get in one year's time at home, here in Colorado.
For all the fear-mongering some like to do re nuclear power - most of it is out of pure ignorance and fear. THAT said, nuclear reactors are no toy either. They must be built, run, and maintained scrupulously - which the US Navy has proven can be done.
