There's good reason to be hopeful. A democratic government is bound by duty to act in the interest of the common good. Just as there are clowns who refuse to wear masks, there are those who will oppose nuclear power.
A government building a nuclear power station is orders of magnitude more likely than an entire population complying with a mask mandate.
It is unfortunate that too many democratic governments are consumed by political bribery and pressure groups rather than doing what is in everyone's interest.