Moreso, when only seed money is needed to start a project, and money added translates very directly and visibly to increased capacity, the need to pay graft to

Moreso, when only seed money is needed to start a project, and money added translates very directly and visibly to increased capacity, the need to pay graft to those who could veto the project falls away. Probably a strict majority of money spent on huge lump-sum public-works projects such as nukes and tunnels goes to pay such graft. "Small modular reactors" installed presumably incrementally threaten the graft infrastructure for nuke procurement, so will be unattractive to those involved in nuke finance, even where the alternative is no new nuke projects at all. If you can't block a nuke project, you can't profit from unblocking it, and then why be involved at all? For renewables, the prospect of graft is not what attracted most people to the field. That may come in time.