The problem is locality ...

For example, over 30,000 people died in the US last year from vehicular crashes. If those deaths all happened in Detroit, that story would make international headlines and there'd be "an investigation", regardless of the cause. Instead, approximately 30k casualties were distributed around the country, so the impact was dispersed -- and so was the concern. But in either case, there would be no less tragedy.

The NIMBY syndrome [[Not In My BackYard) operates most effectively [[as the politics of "no!") when risk is concentrated geographically, temporally, and economically.

Hence the difficulties with licensing of new nuclear power plants.