But why not compare to other carbon free options? A $18B budget buys a lot of solar panels. At the current price of $0.50 per W, you get 36GW. A 1GW reactor ha

But why not compare to other carbon free options? A $18B budget buys a lot of solar panels. At the current price of $0.50 per W, you get 36GW. A 1GW reactor has a 80% capacity factor, solar more like 20%, so it is 7.2GW average vs 0.8 GW average for nuclear. Of course, you need to install those panels, so you might end up with 2GW average output. And no fuel cost and minimal operation cost. There is a reason solar installations are growing at 100% per year and existing nuclear plants are shutting down. It is economics.