No, we are just doing it wrong. Most (all?) of the worlds reactors are fueled by uranium, which is far inferior to using thorium. The uranium is used is because most of the research and funding occurred during the cold war, and governments wanted plutonium, which is a by product of using uranium, but not thorium.
Thorium is much more abundant.
Thorium produces much less waste
The waste produced remains radioactive for hundreds of years instead of hundreds of thousands.
And more importantly, LFTRs (Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor) cannot meltdown.
Thorium as a nuclear fuel isn’t perfect, but it is far better than uranium.
Info:
http://energyfromthorium.com/lftradsrisks.html
What is happening in Japan is terrible. And I am with you in that the current nuclear power situation is epic fail, but it is only because we are doing it wrong. I’d love to see the thorium movement use this disaster as a stepping point for replacing every uranium reactor in the world with a much safer, much cheaper, LFTR.