You are exactly right, we would be fine with nuclear power. Infact it is the future of energy I believe sooner or later.
The green movements rejection of nuclear power leads me to believe their goal is de-industrialization, not concerns of environmental damage.
If the reactors we do have were running at capacity, I'll bet most of the energy supply problems would disappear. California could build two huge ones in the desert, one to supply the Northern state, and another to supply the Southern state. Crisis solved.
What about waste? Doesn't matter... If you don't take the uranium ore out of the ground, it leaches into ground water.
It would be a good idea to store the waste on the moon.
(I think this is why the television show Space 1999 was created - - to discourage the idea. They depicted the moon being blasted off into the nether regions of space by explosions. We know this is not possible. More info-tainment junk science for the unwashed.)