It would take a significant political shift — which would require a significant shift in public opinion about nuclear energy — for nuclear power to gain ground in the US. Nuclear energy needs to be not just tolerated, but desired as the energy source of the future, just as renewables have been over the last 50 years, with massive funding directed into R&D and subsidies for deployment. I don't think there's any disagreement with that.

What would be required is:

* A concerted effort to develop advanced nuclear reactor designs, particularly small modular reactors (SMRs).

* Streamlining the regulatory process and adjusting its risk tolerances to more reasonable levels.

* Subsidizing the deployment of advanced reactor types (e.g. SMRs) to create larger economies of scale.

This would all be an extremely expensive endeavor, but the payoff would be robust market for small modular nuclear reactors that offer increasingly cost-competitive energy as production scales. Keep in mind that with nuclear, the overriding cost is manufacturing.

The fuel costs are almost zero the land use is negligible, and the pollution is minimal. And of course as a base load source, there is no need for storage, unlike with intermittent energy sources, which do require it.