Some of the new reactor designs are walk away safe. If the coolant is lost, the reactor quits working. The Soviet bismuth/lead cooled reactors from their Alpha class subs are like that.
My problem with nuclear is that we haven't found a way to complete the cycle, to store high level wastes safely. Yucca mountain was supposed to be the answer to that, but is no more.
The Hanford Washington plant is a disaster waiting to happen, perched above the Columbia river in a geologically active zone. There aren't many earthquakes in the immediate environs, but the geological record indicates that the ones that do occur are quite *large* and devastating. The sooner all nuclear material is removed from that site, the better.
I'm not anti-nuclear. I'm anti- half-assed when it comes to dealing with nuclear waste, however, and with designs that aren't walk away safe.
If nothing else, the situation in Japan should remind us that Murphy's law must be taken into account when contemplating and pursuing nuclear power. To do otherwise is to court disaster and to violate the public trust.
Oh, yeh- although plutonium may occur in trace amounts in uranium ores, it is not considered to be a naturally occurring element on earth. Existing stockpiles were produced in nuclear reactors.