“Nuclear power has a lower mortality rate per unit of electricity generated than solar energy.”

A 2016 study in the Journal of Cleaner Production reported that 0.01 deaths per terawatt hour (TWh) are attributable to nuclear energy, while solar energy is associated with 0.019 deaths/TWh. “The relative safety of nuclear ends up being extremely counter-intuitive,” The Visual Capitalist reports, as people overlook “slow, consistent deaths that occur over time with other energy sources.”

Nuclear is the second-safest form of electricity — even when accounting for deaths caused by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 and the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. Solar is the safest of all electricity sources, and wind power ranks close behind. ... Coal, which generates about 35% of electricity worldwide, is the deadliest power source, responsible for nearly 25 deaths per terawatt-hour of electricity produced, according to an analysis by Oxford University's Our World in Data project. Oil is the second deadliest, causing more than 18 deaths per terawatt-hour. Fossil gas kills nearly three people per unit of electricity — fewer than coal and oil, but still notably more than any form of clean energy.

Nuclear power is the second safest form of energy behind solar with 0.03 deaths from accidents and air pollution per terawatt-hour (TWh) of electricity produced, according to data compiled by the non-profit clean energy media outlet Canary Media. The figure for solar is 0.02.

Death rates per unit of electricity production, measured in deaths from accidents and air pollution per terawatt-hour, show Nuclear at 0.03 and Solar at 0.02. The figures we reference on accidents from nuclear, solar, and wind are based on the most comprehensive figures we have to date. People often focus on the marginal differences at the bottom of the chart — between nuclear, solar, and wind. This comparison is misguided: the uncertainties around these values mean they are likely to overlap.

A 2007 study published in the Lancet analysed the different death rates per one terawatt-hour (TWh) of fossil fuels, modern renewables and nuclear power. One TWh is around the energy consumed in a year by 27 000 EU citizens. To supply that much energy in one year, coal would kill 25 people, oil 18 and natural gas 3. Most renewable energy sources would cause one death between every 20 and 50 years to produce that same amount of energy, and nuclear energy would cause one death every 14 years.

Nuclear is also highly safe. Coal has approximately 25 deaths per TWh of electricity produced. Oil has 18 deaths per TWh. Natural Gas has 3 deaths per TWh. Hydropower has 1.3 deaths/TWh. Wind has 0.04 deaths/TWh. Nuclear has 0.03 deaths/TWh. Solar has 0.02 deaths/TWh.

The results of comparative risk assessments of the different energy systems for electricity generation indicate that, under routine operating conditions, nuclear power and renewable energy systems tend to be in the lower spectrum of health risk, and that energy systems based on coal and oil are in the higher spectrum of health risk. Variations in the magnitude of risk could be near a factor often.

Energy sources become less deadly the less pollution they produce; deaths from renewables are negligible at 0.04, 0.02 and 0.02 deaths per TWh, respectively, for wind, hydropower and solar.

Environmental benefits extend beyond zero emissions during operation. Solar installations don't require mining, drilling, or combustion. They don't produce hazardous waste. They don't risk catastrophic accidents. While manufacturing solar panels does have environmental impacts, studies show that panels generate enough clean energy to offset their production impacts within one to four years, then continue producing clean energy for decades more.

The deathprint is the number of people killed by one kind of energy or another per kWhr produced and, like the carbon footprint, coal is the worst and wind and nuclear are the best. Nuclear has the lowest deathprint, even with the worst-case Chernobyl numbers and Fukushima projections, uranium mining deaths, and using the Linear No-Treshold Dose hypothesis.

Working in the Solar industry is three times more dangerous than being employed in the Wind power sector. When calculated about the amount of power each industry produces, it's more than ten times more dangerous than nuclear power. As a result, there are believed to be around 100 to 150 deaths in the worldwide Solar industry each year.

An older chart from 2011, based on an original source, claimed solar (rooftop) had 0.44 deaths/TWh and nuclear had 0.04 deaths/TWh, which would suggest nuclear had a lower mortality rate. However, it also notes that more recent calculations for wind (0.01 deaths/TWh) make it the least deadly.

The recorded number of deaths due to nuclear power in U.S. history is zero. In fact, nuclear is the safest industry in the entire United States. Working in a nuclear plant is safer than working in a library. Nobel Prize physicist Burton Richter estimated the years of life lost due to energy sources in Japan: for nuclear—including the losses attributed to the Fukushima accident—it's 30 years per TWh, compared to 142 for coal.

Scientific modelling in 2020 found that brown coal's death rate sat around 32.7, whereas nuclear power's was comparable to that of wind (0.04) and solar (0.02), at a surprisingly low 0.03 deaths per TWh. This indicates solar has a lower mortality rate than nuclear.