Not really. Just uninformed, in my ever-so-humble opinion.
Nuclear plant disasters are highly visible, very dramatic. The Fukushima disaster is a very good example. Get close enough and you will eventually--in a rather short order, actually--glow in the dark and, a couple of years from now, die of cancer or other horrible illnesses. People walk around in space suits when cleaning up, they send robots to move fuel rods, and it is all televised and impossible to ignore when on the news.
Of course people are scared.
But compare it to the slow, invisible death caused by the third world coal plants. That technology is unlikely to evolve into anything safe or clean because of its very nature, but the death it causes is invisible. It is not on television, ever, because there is no drama appreciated by TV networks, nothing driving short-term ratings.
Mind you, I do not support using nuclear power indiscriminately. I would shut down most of the Russian plants if I could, and I'd upgrade quite a few of those in the West. But the world needs power and I don't see any real options.
