As always, Mark Kleiman and Matt Yglesias make powerful arguments, but I'm afraid I'm just not going to be able to stop worrying and love the nuclear power plant next door until somebody convinces me that (a) it isn't a complex system, (b) that complex systems aren't inevitably faced with cascading failures, and (c) that cascading failures don't make catastrophic accidents as unavoidable as my Aunt Louella at Christmastime.

In other words, just show me why normal accident theory is wrong, or doesn't apply here. (Which shouldn't be all that difficult, really, since my understanding of it is basically limited to what little I can recall from an old New Yorker piece.) Then I'll be with you all the way, guys. Seriously.

POSTSCRIPT: Kevin Drum has more.

FURTHER READING: Here for my side of the argument, and here (I assume) for theirs.

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