I fully agree with you. The newer plant designs use different types of nuclear fission. They don’t produce the really nasty waste. In fact, some designs can effectively eat it as fuel. There is still some waste, but it’s generally the low grade stuff e.g. gloves with slightly toxic materials on them. You want to keep them away from the water table, but you likely wouldn’t be able to tell, without specialist equipment.

Thorium reactors are a good example.