Proponents argue that the problems of nuclear waste " do not come anywhere close " to approaching the problems of fossil fuel waste . A 2004 article from the BBC states : " The World Health Organization ( WHO ) says 3 million people are killed worldwide by outdoor air pollution annually from vehicles and industrial emissions , and 1.6 million indoors through using solid fuel . " In the U.S. alone , fossil fuel waste kills 20,000 people each year . A coal power plant releases 100 times as much radiation as a nuclear power plant of the same wattage . It is estimated that during 1982 , US coal burning released 155 times as much radioactivity into the atmosphere as the Three Mile Island accident . The World Nuclear Association provides a comparison of deaths due to accidents among different forms of energy production . In their life-cycle comparison , deaths per TW-yr of electricity produced from 1970 to 1992 are quoted as 885 for hydropower , 342 for coal , 85 for natural gas , and 8 for nuclear . The figures include uranium mining , which can be a hazardous industry , with many accidents and fatalities
Three Mile Island accident
Three Mile Island accident
Environmental impact of nuclear power