Nuclear Power - Is it safe?

With the world rushing headlong into a need for a carbon-free future due to global warming, we are looking at having to do a balancing act between the lifestyle we want, and the lifestyle we can afford with regards pollution.

Now, if we want to keep the lifestyle we enjoy, then we need to be able to produce a LOT of energy, even though we are looking at being more efficient and using less electricity. And green energy will be part of the mix. However, until it becomes more efficient, then to replace the current nuclear power stations, we would need to blanket the nation with wind turbines, and ring the coast in wave technology.

Is nuclear power the answer? It is not the perfect answer, but definitely emotive. Indeed, the BBC Radio 5 Live phone in on Monday morning saw people call in, some keeping cool heads, and others taking parts of what happened at the Fukushima Daiichi station, and use it improperly to further their argument.

Because the nuclear plant has suffered explosions, and released radiation, this obviously proves that nuclear power is inherently dangerous/fragile...

My argument to this is several-fold.

1) No power source is safe. Coal power is seriously dirty, and the Kingston plant in the US caused a spill far more serious than Exxon Valdez. Nuclear power generates massive amounts of energy, and the potential disaster is correspondingly large.

2) Nuclear power is dirty! Hang on, Fukushima has nothing to do with that! Besides, nuclear waste whilst being highly radioactive, is low carbon...

3) Nuclear power is unsafe. Well, Chernobyl blew up. But that was a totally different style of reactor to Fukushima. Fukushima has been shut down, and wont go critical. The explosions have been linked to hydrogen, not the fuel. 

4) Fukushima is dangerous. well, the radiation leaking out has been leaking out. But at levels below dangerous levels.

5) My final point. This is totally unprecedented. Whilst the odds where high on a big quake in that area, it was expected within the next 30 years. Fukushima got nobbled by a magnitude 9.0, and a monster tsunami in quick succession, and this 40 year old plant has not collapsed. It is wobbling, but there has not been a proper nuclear incident at the plant.

Yet.