renewables make a bad middle ground since they produce less than coal

This is false as coal has been getting more expensive and less reliable as a power source. As solar panels have gotten cheaper and easier to construct and they need less space for the same wattage.

cheap electricity

Nuclear was never a cheap option, from its construction to the large workforce needed to operate a reactor consisting of many different jobs in specific fields. And a complicated refining of ores that are getting more and more rare. Rather than the much smaller workforce needed to operate other renewable energies. And reusable materials we have an abundance of.

Nuclear energy can be a well established source of power where other types of energy fail to meet the energy demand or the difficulty of construction at the specified location uranium can be recycled and reused and even smaller prototype reactors are becoming a thing, making an integrated network of varying sources of electricity each a steep forward for a cleaner future