Yes, people always underestimate the dangers of coal and the status quo. My mother was a nurse in the great London 'fog' of the early fifties, when people were dying left right and centre, like Covid, all of it caused by coal. Sadly, the problem is not quite licked despite subsequent clean air legislation. The steady drip goes unnoticed, much as with car accidents, which have cumulatively killed at least 25 million, roughly the same as the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. But if you have something that goes bang occasionally, that's much more newsworthy. Though it is interesting to note that Alvin Weinberg, one of the atomic pioneers, thought that it was possible to design even safer reactors (better than what we have) but that corners had been cut.