area rendered uninhabitable/unusable for hydro power is larger
That can be true of reservoirs (Lake Mead is huge) but isn't necessarily. UK's largest reservoir is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kielder_Water at a mere 2 miles by <6 miles, supporting a piddly 6MW (yes, megawatts not gigawatts, I had to double check that). But that's subject to planning permission in a way that radioactive exclusion zones aren't. The UK suffered from Chernobyl fallout for years: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1514492/20-years-on-B...
It's not that nuclear power is bad on average, it's just that the worst case scenarios affect potentially huge areas.
A clarification to the point about Kielder's power generation: Kielder reservoir is primarily for regulating the water supply, rather than power generation. There are many hydro-electric plants in the UK generating much more power.
That can be true of reservoirs (Lake Mead is huge) but isn't necessarily. UK's largest reservoir is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kielder_Water at a mere 2 miles by <6 miles, supporting a piddly 6MW (yes, megawatts not gigawatts, I had to double check that). But that's subject to planning permission in a way that radioactive exclusion zones aren't. The UK suffered from Chernobyl fallout for years: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1514492/20-years-on-B...
It's not that nuclear power is bad on average, it's just that the worst case scenarios affect potentially huge areas.