After decades of vilification it seems that nuclear power reemerges as one of the most viable option to access abundant clean energy at an affordable cost. France picked nuclear in the late 1950s as a way to gain energy independence and at it peak had 90% of its energy production coming from uranium
Elsewhere it has been such a misguided campaign to move away from the most energy dense fuel known so far, especially considering all the innovations developed in the 1960s (e.g., Molten Salt Reactors, Breeder Reactors, Thorium Reactors, waste recycling) that got shelved for non-scientific reasons.
In this video Erik Townsend argues that all the problems associated with nuclear energy were already solved 50 years ago. Most notably he describes the shelving of the safer and Tennessee-based Molten Salt Reactor in favour of an inferior and less safe but California-based project where Richard Nixon was from.
I highly recommend this episode for the deep technological and political aspects of nuclear energy and the whole series (8 episodes) if you want a deep dive into energy alternatives