It has been suggested that the nuclear industry is unacceptable in a sane world whose people have some concern for posterity. This industry would be acceptable only if its plant design and operating practice were both perfect. This is not asked of other industries whose mishaps, however terrible, are not open-ended. So, while in other industries perfection is desirable, their imperfection is bearable.
The trouble is that a person who uses clever high-tech equipment tends easily to believe that it is infallible (because it is impressive) and, by natural extension, sees himself as infallible too. Illusions of this sort come more easily to a man with a reactor, a missile or a computer than they do to a man with a camp-fire, a club and his ten fingers and ten toes. The low-tech man can usually distinguish dependably a sparrow from an ostrich and, if he cannot - so what? The high-tech man cannot be depended upon to distinguish, by his radar, a small fast aeroplane from a large slower one and, if he cannot, then so what, indeed?