How would you rank the danger of all our energy sources?
edit:// The parent comment was saying that as someone who doesn't know much about it, geothermal sounded potentially more dangerous than nuclear. I was hoping to make the point that nuclear is pretty safe, even when you include recent disasters.
I guess large-scale geothermal power plants are an unproven concept, but isn't the risk of volcanic eruptions completely independent of whether we tap it for energy or not?
Perhaps there could be a scenario where the sudden cooling of a region in the magma pocket could lead to clogging and local overpressure. OTOH releasing magma in a controlled manner could just as well decrease overall pressure.
> I guess large-scale geothermal power plants are an unproven concept
Depends on the definition of large-scale, the biggest plant in the world is the 300MWe Hellisheiði power station in Iceland, and the largest geothermal field (a single "location" hosting multiple plants) is The Geysers in California, with 1500MWe over 22 plants.
edit:// The parent comment was saying that as someone who doesn't know much about it, geothermal sounded potentially more dangerous than nuclear. I was hoping to make the point that nuclear is pretty safe, even when you include recent disasters.