... nor do I "worship" alternative energies, which as I noted have their own costs and benefits. [Storing solar-derived or wind-derived power for night-time use isn't unsolvable, though. Mechanical and electronic storage technologies do exist, and lithium-ion batteries are not likely to be a large component in such storage for reasons I shared earlier.]
However, in social and economic measures for the moment excluding environmental, the damage caused at Fukushima and Chernobyl was and will remain significant. And just because one component of that damage is (merely?) perceptual doesn't overcome popular resistance. Humans after all required millennia before they were comfortable harnessing fire. I trust large-scale engineering more than I trust, say, the people who design, build, and maintain modern corkscrew roller-coaster designs. But in that comparison I'm a distinct minority.
Engineering and management of complex technologies (anyone want to fly the 737 Max, yet?) are inevitably imperfect, and rushing new technologies to commercialization is often a mistake. Smaller scale nuclear generators do make some kind of sense. But until the insurance companies decide they can reliably cover nuclear accidents (meaning the federal government wouldn't have to underwrite those risks), the high probability is that we're not going to see a resurgence in commercial nuclear power on any scale.
I am an old man, as well, one who studied sociology, psychology, and political science. In my view, you needn't worry for now about the vast majority of Americans falling under the spell of "alternative energy." So far, a serious plurality of them still follow handy memes that deride those alternatives -- for wrong and usually non-technical reasons. I mean, wind farms are uglier than smoke stacks and kill more birds, right?
Society will remain at an impasse until more citizens are willing to sit down and learn more about necessary choices. And until they are represented by elected representatives who will follow the science and do the right things. Instead of, for example, what the Koch conglomerates or the American Petroleum Institute pay them to do.
Human nature tends toward favoring things as they are. Too bad, because as the late Marshall McLuhan pointed out, "Our museums depict ways of life that we have made impossible." I just hope there's a place on a future Earth for a museum that depicts our current way of life.
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