> if we can safely propel hundreds of people in an aluminum tube, 35k feet in the air, at hundreds of miles per hour ground speed, thousands of time day in and day out - why is safely generating power from nuclear so often dismissed as unachievable?

The level of safety is different. There have been plenty of total loss accidents in aviation; a similar number of accidents of that severity would be unacceptable in nuclear power. Nuclear power plants need (and, AFAIK, have) a much higher safety factor than airplanes.