I think I mentioned in my OP that I appreciate the eye to modern safety here. But the proponents of nuclear as a (or THE) solution generally aren't talking abou

I think I mentioned in my OP that I appreciate the eye to modern safety here. But the proponents of nuclear as a (or THE) solution generally aren't talking about this design. They're either talking more of the same-old reactor designs that are decidedly not safe for these sorts of attacks, or near-vaporware like thorium that no one actually builds in the real world. I think safety from anything short of a nuclear attack, including insider sabotage, is essential. And the only way to do that is to build a reactor that can't fail even if its containment is destroyed. I haven't seen that design yet. edit: I'm actually less worried about the theft of fissionable material, as commercial reactor-grade materials aren't anywhere near bomb-grade, and would need a lot of refinement (a dedicated facility) to make bombs. It's mostly a problem for state-level actors like Iran that will shuffle fissionable material from their civilian reactor projects over into secret military projects. fwiw, the reason Iran even has substantial uranium is because, in the 1970s, the US was merrily building a half-dozen civilian reactors for our good friend the Shah of Iran. So when the revolution happened in 1979, those all fell into the hands of our new most hated enemies. And 40 years later, they still have all that uranium and leftover know-how and equipment to play with. Which gets back to my whole "Do we build reactors in Yemen?" question.