While I don't want to necessarily sign myself up for a debate and I don't think nuclear energy is perfect, I think pound for pound it's a better alternative for large scale power production than fossil fuels. Any issue that nuclear energy has, fossil fuels have as well, and usually worse on a per kWH basis. We've just lived with those ramifications for so long that we're more comfortable dealing with it. A great example is nuclear waste. Yes, it's a problem that needs to be dealt with, but so is coal waste. We just already have infrastructure in place already for coal waste, and coal waste is much more abundant. Per kWH, the nuclear waste generated is on the order of grams while the waste generated by coal power plants per kWH is on the order of kilograms. And coal fired power plants create radioactive waste as well, usually from incidental uranium and thorium, so we already have to take that into account. So yes it's an issue, but the amount of waste that needs to be dealt with is much lower overall.

The nuclear power industry is known for astroturfing. Just enter something like "nuclear power pros and cons" and you will find dozens of websites which only exist to advertise nuclear power.

Most of them seem to be legit enough at a first glance, but when you dig through their impressums or otherwise look up who owns the website they often belong to some group that's associate with the nuclear power industry.

I believe at least some of the die hard fans of nuclear power perhaps were convinced on these one-sided websites.

Another reason why you find so many fanboys is because on Lemmy (and similar platforms) everything considered "hard science" is cool. Even if they don't really understand it. Having reservations against or be careful with, what these people deem, technological advancement, shows that you are at least unintelligent and probably "too green".

Also, a lot of conservatives are into nuclear power reactors and they seem to have a general tendency to be extreme in their opinions.