The medical and industrial use of nuclear materials is inherently risky, given that any technology designed to control radiation is subject to failures, exposure to radiation can be difficult to detect, and protective shielding is never perfect. Indeed, just getting the natural resource of uranium out of the ground has been proven to be hazardous. Uranium miners have long been routinely exposed to higher- than-normal levels of radiation, leading to radiation-induced lung cancers. According to the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the largest collective exposure of radiation to workers has been due to uranium mining. "The death rate from lung cancer is five times higher in uranium miners than in the general population,"30 a report in the Lancet notes.

Disaster at Church Rock

The aftermath of uranium mining also has its hazards. One of the most dramatic mining-related nuclear disasters occurred outside the...