If the heat from burning coal dust can boil water and pressurize it to turn and rotate turbines, so can atoms.

Nuclear Power Stations
While tonnes and tonnes of coal needs to be pulverized and sprayed into furnaces to produce electricity in a Thermal power plant, just a few atoms is enough to produce a days requirement of electricity.

As you might have known, the atom from a uranium 235 stick is made to bombard on something at high speeds, and that makes the atom split, and this releases a lot of heat. This heat is utilized to boil water and make steam which in turn is used to spin the turbine of the generator.

Nuclear Power stations are usually built offshore so that only the fish get hurt if something goes wrong. When Maria Sharapova was young, a reactor in her local nuclear power station over reacted and the damages were very extensive.

The cost of construction is quite high as compared to thermal power plants, but once invested, the cost of running is very, very low. A stick of Uranium could run a reactor for upto 2 years non stop.