I have lived near them most of my life as civilian power stations or military hardware. My father served aboard a nuclear powered guided missile cruiser (he is still very well thankyou!).
Are they a mistake? Time will tell. But scareing people about the possible effects of an accident is no better than telling them there are no problems with having them.

We currently live in an area with no nuclear power plants.
At least five persons in our small neighborhood are sick or dead from various cancers with no radioactives from a powerplant playing any part in it.

There used to be a neighborhood in Baltimore, MD where more than 50% of the deaths were caused by cancer. Again there was no radiation from nuclear power plants (the closest being Peach bottom in Pennsylvania) to be blamed. The cancers were mostly from exposure to petroleum industry, chromium, pesticides, etc. It used to be the largest concentration of people with cancer in the whole state, up until most of the afflicted people died and they raised the neighborhood.

The fossil fuel industry is currently our only other feasible source of power for homes and industry. I wish they would develop solar/tide/windpower but they haven't as of yet. Compared to the number of people hurt, maimed and killed in the exploration and development and employment of fossil fuels, the number of deaths and diseases caused by the few nuclear accidents that have been experienced is minimal. More people have died from hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, fires, etc.

We must be careful and overly cautious with this technology. Scaring people about it is unethical.