This is where we could bridge the gap between the pro- and anti-nuclear advocates, and it's that old country song, "Here in the Real World."
There is the one debate about whether or not nuclear power could ever be safe, period. Then there's the matter of corporate behavior. These organizations are designed to advance themselves using whatever political, or P.R. power they can muster - not to mention outright lying and covering-up and all manner of criminal behavior.
My experience comes from my folks living near Vermont Yankee, an outfit run by Entergy. They repeatedly lied about leaks into ground water. Here's a summary:

"Radioactive Tritium Leaking from 27 Nuclear Reactors
By DAVE GRAM, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, February 2, 2010
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Radioactive tritium, a carcinogen discovered in potentially dangerous levels in groundwater at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, has now tainted at least 27 of the nation's 104 nuclear reactors — raising concerns about how it is escaping from the aging nuclear plants.

The leaks — many from deteriorating underground pipes — come as the nuclear industry is seeking and obtaining federal license renewals, casting itself as a clean-green alternative to power plants that burn fossil fuels.

Tritium, found in nature in tiny amounts and a product of nuclear fission, has been linked to cancer if ingested, inhaled or absorbed through the skin in large amounts.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday that new tests at a monitoring well on Vermont Yankee's site in Vernon registered 70,500 picocuries per liter, more than three times the federal safety standard of 20,000 picocuries per liter.

That is the highest reading yet at the Vermont Yankee plant, where the original discovery last month drew sharp criticism by Gov. Jim Douglas and others. Officials of the New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., which owns the plant in Vernon in Vermont's southeast corner, have admitted misleading state regulators and lawmakers by saying the plant did not have the kind of underground pipes that could leak tritium into groundwater."

At this point, anyone who trusts energy companies hasn't been paying attention, so before you even get to the technological possibilities if everything went great, you can't get past the problem of the corporate lying.

Because what's more important nuclear safety or nuclear bonuses?

http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair03162011.html