True; many of these dream reactors probably won't work, because that is the nature of things. But the full-scale engineering never gets done because of anti-nuclear propaganda playing on mass public ignorance, so at the rate we're going now we'll never know.
Full scale engineering, free of the liberal treehugging you decry, happens in China, India, Russia, and elsewhere. You'd think we'd be seeing better results than we are.
Well, at least Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant was being delayed due to protests by local people. Another reason why better results are not being obtained is because of the subsidy on CO2 emitting fuels by not taxing the externalities (which would make nuclear power significantly more profitable) and also difficulties in obtaining nuclear material (NSG, for example). Kudankulam power plant generates power at 4.29 rupees/kW.h which is barely profitable compared to other methods (mostly fossil fuels).