That is absolutely the right idea, the question is, what boondoggles should we put our money into? If we carefully choose the right boondoggle we might even get something out of it. If you want to go down the path of nuclear power then you must consider a strategy that involves the construction of hundreds of new reactors, preferably continuously so that you don't run into the "build everything, then nothing and once you want to build again everyone has retired" problem.

Keeping nuclear power safe is very easy, you just have to decommission old power plants that aren't up to modern standards. That's all it would have taken to prevent Chernobyl and Fukushima. So why on earth do we build nuclear power plants that are difficult to rebuild? Why did we believe that immature technology is going to be enough for the next 50 years? You need to build more, to replace the crappy old power plants, you need to build more, to expand the fleet, you need to build more, to update previously built plants to a new safety standard, you need to build more, just to maintain a workforce.

It's done all the time with solar power and wind. Build it for 20+ years, if new tech comes out you just replace the old tech once it proves uneconomical.

My personal favorite boondoggles are still housing, internet, electric grid and road maintenance. We really need to put pressure on the job market through fiscal stimulus. That pressure will force companies to wake up and actually do something productive.