Re: Rickover rolling over.
The atmosphere is less good at stopping the harmful shorter-wavelength UV radiation (especially after ozone depletion), and cosmic X-rays and gamma-rays that can have very high energies and could cause atoms in the atmosphere to become radioactive, or be split into various nasty daughter isotopes.
Plus good'ol cosmic rays and SEPs (solar energetic protons). People don't seem to understand that if you really want to avoid radiation, it's safer inside a nuclear plant that being outside it. Especially at the moment given the series of CMEs the Sun's spitting out.
(also fascinating from a climate PoV, eg Svensmark et al's theories about cosmic rays and cloud condensation nuclei. Plus isotopic studies used in climate proxies, which get abused to interpret temperature rather than cosmic ray activity. We know that's variable from monitoring those rays and the daughter products produced by air shows, and if those have can have a significant effect on cloud cover, could explain climate shifts.)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
