Technology

They go so far over budget because of lawsuits, usually. Vogtle was announced in like 2011 and didn't even get to break ground until 2017, then got caught up in even more lawsuits, if I recall correctly. And while conventional nuclear plants will probably always have huge upfront costs that take 30 years to offset, SMRs are darn close to a full reality and those will be a lot cheaper, and will get cheaper over time, like solar panels did.

There's a plant in Phoenix Arizona that uses city wastewater to cool the reactors, so they can hold up to hot dry climates just fine if designed to do so. (Fun side fact, the plant has to clean the rad waste out of the water before they use it - the rad waste from medical procedures that get into wastewater would be enough to exceed their allowance of acceptable release).

I'll give you the waste issue, but it's 100% a matter of politics. You're going to have to convince a state to take it on and none of them will. But on-site cask storage isn't the worst option. It's worked for a long time. There's also a lot of research going into other stuff we might be able to do with it. (In fact, waste isn't an issue in France because they already recycle it; the US doesn't because some of the recycled materials could be used to build bombs).

By footprint (in terms of land and waste) nuclear is the best option still. It's still the most stable output (save perhaps geothermal, but you can't do that everywhere) One day we might have batteries good enough to make that less of an issue but right now it's probably not a good idea to abandon nuclear.