> > building a fission reactor takes one or two decades and its kWh is costlier than alternatives > It didn't and doesn't need to be that way [..] a big part o

> > building a fission reactor takes one or two decades and its kWh is costlier than alternatives > It didn't and doesn't need to be that way [..] a big part of the cost is the need to satisfy incredibly hostile regulations [..] (Alleged over-)regulation is only part of the story. "analysis, done by a team of researchers at MIT, is remarkably comprehensive. For many nuclear plants, they have detailed construction records, broken out by which building different materials and labor went to, and how much each of them cost. There's also a detailed record of safety regulations and when they were instituted relative to construction. Finally, they've also brought in the patent applications filed by the companies who designed the reactors. The documents describe the motivations for design changes and the problems those changes were intended to solve."[0] "while safety regulations added to the costs, they were far from the primary factor. And deciding whether they were worthwhile costs would require a detailed analysis of every regulatory change in light of accidents like Three Mile Island and Fukushima" [0] https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/11/why-are-nuclear-plants-so-expensive-safetys-only-part-of-the-story/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/11/why-are-nuclear-plan...