/sigh
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602051/fail-safe-nuclear-power/
Newer plants are more efficient, can run off the lower heat of spent fuel (spent just means its no longer hot enough, but it's still hot), and then there is thorium. Which is much safer and produces a lot less waste.
And the only thing keeping us from solving the storage problem is politics. There are more than a few places in the country that are geologically and geographically suitable to store waste. But congress isn't spending the money to look anywhere but where their special interest backers want them to look. Which ended up being Yucca Mountain in a Screw Nevada somebody, not Nevada, is going to get rich off this deal, deal.
If we overhaul the plants we have, convert them to thorium efficient models, and develop the nuclear corridor. Not only will we be sittin pretty, we won't have to worry about meltdowns during the zombie apocalypse.