Folks, most schools with nuclear engineering programs have research reactors. Most schools conducting medical radiation therapy research get their materials from these research reactors. There are ~50 of them in the U.S., and the fact that you haven't heard of an accident with them (the only incident I know of was a poisoning/murder attempt with radioactive materials at MIT in the 1990s) should tell you something about their safety.
In terms of things you should be worried about in life, they are down around #9473. The most dangerous thing you do every day is ride in a car.
[citation][nom]TA152H[/nom]Maybe so, but they are responsible for more snakes with two heads and glowing tails than coal.[/citation]
Pollution from coal plants is the biggest source of radioactive uranium and thorium released into the environment. The trace amounts of uranium contained in coal actually contain more energy (if used to provide nuclear power) than the coal itself. Think of all the fuel rods used to power all the nuclear reactors in the U.S. Imagine grinding 3x that amount into powder and scattering them in the air and soil around the country. That's what we do with the coal we burn.
And that's just the radioactive stuff. You know how you can't eat tuna because of mercury? Guess where that comes from? Right - coal. Acid rain? Coal. CO2? Arsenic? Lead? Coal, coal, coal.