I'm going to continue with my hypothesis that there is some involvement of Gaia herself in this whole thing.
A nuclear war, obviously, would spew radiation over a large portion of the planet, which she wouldn't want. At the same time, a "fast collapse" scenario with a rapid mass dieoff she would also not want, because that scenario would leave nuclear plants unstaffed. Automated shutdowns might help, but I'm pretty sure something manual is required at some stage to avoid a meltdown. Alarms might blare, but it doesn't matter if no one's around to hear them...
She doesn't want that to happen. Yes, the nuclear waste has to go somewhere eventually, but the best place for it to go is somewhere that's already pretty barren. Nuke plants, for obvious reasons, are located semi-close to populated areas, populated areas are populated for a reason, and that reason typically is relative fertility.
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A nuclear war, obviously, would spew radiation over a large portion of the planet, which she wouldn't want. At the same time, a "fast collapse" scenario with a rapid mass dieoff she would also not want, because that scenario would leave nuclear plants unstaffed. Automated shutdowns might help, but I'm pretty sure something manual is required at some stage to avoid a meltdown. Alarms might blare, but it doesn't matter if no one's around to hear them...
She doesn't want that to happen. Yes, the nuclear waste has to go somewhere eventually, but the best place for it to go is somewhere that's already pretty barren. Nuke plants, for obvious reasons, are located semi-close to populated areas, populated areas are populated for a reason, and that reason typically is relative fertility.