Why is nuclear becoming the energy darling when solar is so clearly better? 

Solar is already proven to work at a variety of scales, has little-to-no downside, and needs to only become more efficient and ubiquitous. 

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On top of what others said: More upside exists in the technology.

Solar has maybe x2 room for improvement left (we'll never exceed 100% efficiency and unlikely to even approach it), nuclear is a deep tech tree that is maybe x4 in the medium term and up to x1000 in the long term.

A doodler and computerer. I like permissive/permissionless open source, smart contracts, p2p systems, room-scale VR, and NixOS.

Currently: WhatsABI

I think there’s equal potential upside in both solar and nuclear.

Current solar vs current nuclear yes, you’re 100% right. 

But there are likely new ways of capturing, storing, transmitting that have yet to be unlocked.

I’m not suggesting that folks get excited about solar farms 2.0. But I am saying that we need more ambitious solar ideas. Reflect Orbital (BHAG and may not work) is an example. 

Another way to frame it: who’s working on progressing us to a Dyson Sphere?

A Dyson Sphere with the capability to direct that energy anywhere in the world based on market dynamics and demand is equally as (probably more) exciting to me as a nuclear reactor beside my water heater.