Those byproducts are still viable as fuel and can be sent to second- and third-stage reactors rather than being locked away in a cement vault somewhere. Also, Australia has an absolute shitload of uranium out in the outback, which is kind of a win-win since it's far from civilization and largely uninhabitable anyway. If the fuel actually gets used until it's spent, nuclear is extremely clean and very safe.

You can get uranium from many sources, and it’s really cheap. Actually, the low price is the reason why we produce as much nuclear waste as we do, as there’s little incentive to use all the energy in the uranium. That said, the amount of waste produced is very low compated to any other category of waste. It’s very overblown.

Nuclear is insanely expensive, but what’s the alternative backups for renewables? Coal, that’s what. Gas is too expensive without Russian supply. Battery storage on a scale of more than 5 minutes is an unsolved problem. To bring the irony full circle coal plants are actually very radioactive.