Comment by pfdietz
7 days ago
We don't actually know how much that cost France, sine it was mixed in with their military nuclear effort. French auditors threw up their hands trying to figure out the actual costs.
What we do know is their attempt to build more NPPs now has gone spectacularly tits up, with costs completely out of control. This should make one view their earlier efforts with great suspicion. Have they become much worse, or were earlier problems concealed?
Costs are out of control due to nuclear regulation.
This is the conspiracy theory reasoning I was talking about. Nuclear is wonderful, but a global omnipotent green conspiracy has hobbled it.
Or, maybe, it really is complicated and needs regulation to keep it sufficiently safe in a world where corners are always cut.
Right or wrong, I don't think conspiratorial is the right descriptor here. The pro-nuclear claim is that the very loud, very public anti-nuclear movement was influential in setting regulations of the industry. It's not "an evil cabal of shadowy green elites secretly control everything", it's "democracy works; fellow citizens were/are dumb; legislation improvements move slowly".