> Nuclear power plants have been shutting down because the companies

Except that is demonstrably false:

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/history-behind-ge...

But what happens if say, the wind doesn’t blow as much as expected [0]? Renewables are great but since you can’t easily bank massive amounts of power for later, you need some sort of reliable, consistent energy source that continues working when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. Like gas or nuclear. But with nuclear plants falling out of fashion, guess what that leaves you with. Renewables are great but you can’t just ignore their downsides.

0: https://fortune.com/2021/09/16/the-u-k-went-all-in-on-wind-p...

There has definitely been extensive anti nuclear campaigning.

Wind and solar are great but they’re not dependable.

They are also way less reliable which is a huge disadvantage from the point of view of the state. And we're still far from having good energy storage (that is cheap, clean, efficient).