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Should Japan Restart More Nuclear Power Plants? (thebulletin.org)
Lasrick writes: Seth Baum, executive director of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, writes in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that Japan should restart more of its nuclear reactors (the Sendai nuclear plant was restarted in August). The reason is simple, writes Baum: "Japan is now building 45 new coal power plants, but if it turned its nuclear power plants back on... it could cut coal consumption in half. And coal poses more health and climate change dangers than nuclear power."
Nope. It is physically impossible for a plant to detonate into a mushroom cloud. Chernobyl was horrific because the engineers deliberately disengaged the safeties and ramped up the power. There have been significant advances in inherently-safe nuclear plants, such as pebble bed and thorium reactors. There are also breeder reactors that effectively "recycle" used fuel. Because of this, I just can't take seriously anyone who doesn't include nuclear as part of a climate-change-related energy policy.