Excellent sanity check, and I'll add another calculation for comparison.
449 nuclear reactors in the world [0]
2 disasters leading to large exclusion zones
average area of those exclusion zones 1300 square miles [1]
average exclusion zone per reactor (very roughly) 5.8 square miles
15.0 square kilometres
So solar panels use up about 4 times as much space as "average" nuclear reactors (not including the relatively small area used by the plant itself[2]), but of course the value of land with solar panels on is much higher than radioactively contaminated land.
To some extent, for a fair comparison, you should also use old sole panel efficiency here. Nuclear power plants have progressed tremendously in terms of safety.
There’s also widespread reporting that the evacuations and exclusion zones, in Fukushima at least, were excessive.
449 nuclear reactors in the world [0]
2 disasters leading to large exclusion zones
average area of those exclusion zones 1300 square miles [1]
average exclusion zone per reactor (very roughly) 5.8 square miles
15.0 square kilometres
So solar panels use up about 4 times as much space as "average" nuclear reactors (not including the relatively small area used by the plant itself[2]), but of course the value of land with solar panels on is much higher than radioactively contaminated land.
[0] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/11/countries-that-have-t...
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29152930
[2] https://www.nei.org/news/2015/land-needs-for-wind-solar-dwar...