whatever did happen to pebble bed and all the other emerging nuclear technologies from 20 years ago that were supposed to move the bar into passive fail-safe territory and eliminate the waste problem through spent fuel reprocessing?
Now, currently we are building solar farms in desert areas for ~1.5 cent per kWh. Including both CAPEX and OPEX. On-shore wind is built at ~3 cents per kWh and ~6 cents per kWh for off-shore.
This is where the explosion of renewables is coming from, they currently undercut the marginal cost of traditional power sources.
https://www.oeb.ca/consumer-information-and-protection/elect...
Also, I don't think passive safety of CANDU is what's meant by passive safety of HTGRs. The latter can survive losing cooling and everyone just walking away (in theory); I suspect the CANDU melts down in that situation, even if the chain reaction does stop.
Don't forget, either: Nuclear waste isn't just spent fuel. The reactor core remains radioactive after the plant is decommissioned.
That's one of the things that nuclear fusion proponents seem to forget. Even without the spent fuel problem, fusion reactors still produce nuclear waste.