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Transporting electrical power over long distances is expensive. If most demand is in cities, most power plants need to be relatively near cities.

High voltage transmission lines are actually pretty efficient. We routinely distribute power over hundreds of kilometers. There are a couple that are over 2,000 km long, and numerous examples over 1,000 km.

http://www.power-technology.com/features/featurethe-worlds-l...

Cooling water availability is a major factor in plant siting. So you're looking for unpopulated areas on coasts, lakes, or rivers, which is probably a smaller set.

Chernobyl was in the middle of nowhere, too— the meltdown destroyed some of the best farmland in eastern Europe.