Nobody wants a nuclear power plant anywhere near their homes. Nobody wants nuclear waste transported to disposal centers through their towns. Conversely, people like solar because 90% of the world's cobalt needed for the batteries is found in the Congo region so it's that environment being poisoned. Because the old solar panels end up in landfills in Africa and Asia, not in their city.
Yes we should be leading in nuclear. But we won't. Solar and wind are so much more popular and are perceived as completely clean when they are not.
And how we create false beliefs of things being clean is we choose not to look and observe. We have whole industries built around this like advertising, lobbying, etc. Nothing is ideal, yet we live in material reality but also simultaneously hyper-reality of beliefs and ideas.
shrug