One reason nuclear power has been not our main meansd of producing electricity (aside from the kooks in birkenstocks waving signs saying "split wood not atoms") is that every nuclear reactor operating in the US is a one off design.
France, which produces some 20% of its electricity from nuclear power, used a basic single design for its reactors. Yes, there were improvements in succeeding models, but the basic engineering is much the same for all plants. This allows for better training of operators and lower construction costs.
Current computer assisted design technology and state of the art engineering could allow the production of very efficient, easy to operate and SAFE nuclear plants. However, the required mountain of government paperwork and the environmentatist wackos making every attempt to block the construction of nuclear plants will keep us chained to fossil fuels for a long time.
I think part of the desire for renewables is the desire to be free of the monthly utility bills; in my case ,the government allows me to use a large enough land area that wind-driven generators, biomass gas converters, alcohol stills, solar panels, and low-head hydroelectric turbines COULD provide ALL the energy my family could use. Of course, the initial costs of construction of all these things would be many times more than the cost of purchased energy.
I say , allows me to use, BECAUSE, if I do not pay property taxes every six months on the land and improvements like buildings and energy gathering devices, the gov't will send a man with a gun toi take it away from me. (This is why property taxes are a great evil;I pay tax on my earnings,tax again on my purchases, and yet more tax for permission to keep my purchases.)