3 Mile Island was not a catastrophe, although it could have been. The reason for this is arguably the high standard of engineering. The safety systems worked to contain almost everything. Chernobyl was an outdated design when it was built, today it is a really outdated design. In addition, Soviet bureaucracy prevented people from being properly informed what was happening and evacuating. Fukishima was a disappointment, I normally have a huge amount of respect for Japanese engineering. One way to solve it is to not locate nuclear reactors near seismic activity. (In the case of Japan, they have to. They aren't going to build them in another country, and all of Japan is vulnerable to seismic activity and tsunamis.) Very high voltage power transmission is feasible, and will only get better as silicon fabs increase. It also likely that we will have some energy dense liquid like gasoline/ethanol that is produced easily from electricity, and can be shipped anywhere. Hydrogen is not realistic.

I'd say we have figured out the engineering more than you claim.