Pregnant pro-nuclear energy campaigner rubs baby bump against radioactive waste container to 'prove it's safe'

A mother-to-be has demonstrated how much she believes in the safety of nuclear power by rubbing her baby bump against a container filled with radioactive waste.

Now, to be clear we're not talking about something out of The Simpsons that's glowing green and leaking all over the place, this is the proper sort of container designed to keep radioactive waste locked up safely without poisoning the planet.

With that in mind pro-nuclear energy campaigner Madison Hilly has been showing her commitment to the safety of this energy source.

Hilly, 27, has even set up her own campaign group which is trying to solve the climate change crisis in the US by getting half of America's energy generation to come from nuclear power by 2050.

There are plenty of people who have reservations about going nuclear because of what radiation can do to you and the world around us but advocates argue that if used properly it's incredibly safe.

Twitter / @MadiHilly

Speaking to Newsweek, Hilly explained that she had the chance to go to the Idaho National Laboratory and 'get up close to some of the 'spiciest' nuclear waste in the country'.

She said: "I thought it would be a great opportunity to demonstrate how much of a non-issue nuclear waste is.

"The trouble with talking about nuclear waste is that most people don't know what it is or what it looks like. Thanks to The Simpsons, many people think nuclear waste is a bright green liquid and stored in leaky oil drums.

"I find that when people see pictures of nuclear waste and discover that it's actually solid metal, safe enough to hug and actually quite boring - it alleviates a lot of their anxieties."

When not properly contained radioactive waste does pose a serious health risk and pregnant women are facing a double danger as their babies are not protected from ionizing radiation in the womb.

Twitter / @MadiHilly

The level of dangerous waste that nuclear power generates is one of the main arguments against it but Hilly wanted to demonstrate that it can be properly stored and the radioactive poison kept safely away from everyone else.

She also pointed out that she got radiation from plenty of other places during her trip as she was irradiated from her flight, from being out in the sun and from the banana she ate for breakfast.

As long as it's all kept safe then nuclear power will play a part in nations moving their energy production away from fossil fuels.

While many are hoping for renewables to take up the lion's share of the duties, nuclear power has a role to play and some like Hilly believe it should be doing as much as half of the work.

The way she sees it every cask containing nuclear waste is 'over two million tonnes of carbon that wasn't emitted into the atmosphere'.