Why is nuclear energy so popular among some politicians?

Because it is anti-free market.

Anti-free market?  How can that be?  We have legislatures dominated by free-market proponents.

How many large companies stand to benefit from nuclear power?  You don't need to use more than one hand to count them.

How many medium and small companies benefit from wind and solar?  Lots and lots.

A free market has many buyers and many sellers.  If you have a few sellers, the market is not so free.

It is the interest of ever-larger corporations to become even larger.  Larger corporations give larger donations.

Nuclear power companies probably have given some very large political donations.

Can the wind energy market give such large donations?

Now you know why the push for nuclear energy.

A couple notes on green jobs

Many pooh-pooh the idea of green jobs. However, in 2008, there were more jobs in wind power than there were in coal mining. - "Wind Jobs Outstrip Coal Mining", Fortune, 2009-01-23.

And as a follow-on to my blog "Nuclear weapons and climate change - is there a connection?"
see "Texas site to harness ocean for power, water" about using wave/tidal pumps a company will start bottling water from sea water. When they scale the project up, they plan to provide millions a gallons of fresh water for a city.