Compared to what? I'm not buying it.
Increasing the knowledge of nuclear processes will pay off in future uses of nuclear power.
We're not getting any new nuclear power to speak of, for which the technology in small plants has been available for decades.
I guess you want to give the future to the Chinese!
Then you guessed wrong. I prefer engineers focus upon generating wealth. This investment has been a black hole for forty years. I'd even rather see fusion research, which has all the potential ancillary benefits you described. This one is a loser.
There are books on Mandarin in the library.
I suggest you go check them out.
Without physicists experimenting with transitional elements and studying the properties of semiconductors (”dirt effects” we call them), there would be no transistor, NOTHING of electronics as we have them today.
We would be stuck in a world of vacuum tubes forever. Oh, those would not be around either, because no one would have studied electron emission from heated metals (what’s the use of that, eh?).
And so on, and so forth. Clubs, not knives.
Will these super heavy elements pave a way to new technology? Unlikely, but having a broad base of scientists is a good thing, much better than welfare spending for example.