Unfortunately the "best" technology is also the most expensive and slowest to bring online.
As for stigma, that plays a role, but places that care far less about that still aren't building new plants. China has built more plants over the last couple of decades than anyone, yet they're still only investing about 1/20th in nuclear compared to renewables and haven't started any new nuclear projects in half a decade. Nuclear hasn't really made economic sense for a while and the gap between it and other options is widening as time goes on.
There are definitely some promising technologies in nuclear (like small modular reactors) that overcome some of the drawbacks of existing facilities, but at this point they're basically vaporware. And they're still expensive for what they produce.
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