> some environmentalists have opposed nuclear power

At some point we finally will need to admit that they were not fools for saying that.

Fresh water is vanishing. Nuclear plants need water (and absence of arsonists) to not go out of control. They will need ten years (or most) to be built. At this point the place may be in the way to be flooded by the sea, or in the way to became a desert. Can a new nuclear plant return their investment if they will be operative only for ten years more before to turn into a rusty reef?. Probably not.

Had we spent this pile of money into renewables, we would be in a much better position.