Helen Caldicott and George Monbiot debated about nuclear power today on Democracy Now and it was very interesting.   There is no doubt that the nuclear plant meltdown in Japan is very, very serious, and a threat to human health.  But it has led to many people deciding that nuclear power — none of it — is safe, without considering all the facts and ramifications of that.  Helen Caldicott is one of those people who thinks nuclear’s benefits are far outweighed by its dangers. In the interview Caldicott, a pediatrician, made her usual  claims and several times lapsed into her patented filibuster style of speaking.  She is 100% against nuclear power everywhere, for any reason at all.   Monbiot sounded like the reasonable person that he is. He’s not so much pro-nuclear as he is interested in ways to stop climate change, and he feels nuclear power will be a necessary part of solving the greater problem. It’s not like he’s a big proponent of nuclear but he seems to recognize that nuclear power has a unique ability to provide huge amounts of carbon-free power for decades, once new safe plants are built. No one wants the old nuclear plants [...]