What people forget, is there are a few grades of coal.
Coal for energy and coking coal for metal production.
One will still be required.
Also, as above, uranium is in large deposits here, yet we would be stupid to sell it.
We should be taking other countries waste and utilise it as a fuel source in the latest generation reactors, which iirc, reduce it to 5% of it's original waste mass/size, thus we get paid shit loads to solve another countries problem and get energy from it too.
But hurr nukelar scary, derp mentality within the general masses prevents it.
Most folks don't understand a whole lot about nuclear energy and rely upon sensationalist profit driven media for their 'facts'.
Also, the more volatile the radioactive item, the shorter the half life, thus the quicker it declines to a relatively inert state!
Just plain soil or a body of water is enough to block alpha, beta and most of the gamma radiation.
Put it this way, depending upon the depth, I'd swim in the water above a reactor core!