Debating nuclear power

In this TED video, Stewart Brand and Mark Jacobson debate the need for nuclear power.

The over-reaction to the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 led to a near-halt of the construction of nuclear power plants in the US. Without alternative energy sources like nuclear, the US was more reliant on oil, which eventually led to deepwater offshore drilling for oil. I wonder: will an over-reaction to today's Gulf oil spill likewise shut down a needed source of energy, that is, offshore oil drilling? And/or, will it encourage a return to nuclear?

Brand is a pro-nuclear environmentalist. To read Rob Lyons' review of Brand's latest book, go here. For a tour de force on energy politics, see Energise! by James Woudhuysen and Joe Kaplinsky.