Small reactors might start to get economy of scale in manufacture, but operators would see the opposite result, either the same attention needed for much less p

Small reactors might start to get economy of scale in manufacture, but operators would see the opposite result, either the same attention needed for much less power, or the same power but many times the work. Nukes' operation is a minority cost only by comparison to monstrous capital cost. It is way more than for, e.g., coal, fuel aside. The manufacturer might instrument it heavily, and take up remote and semi-automated management of the whole fleet, but that also raises total cost vs. big reactors. It is impossible for mature tech to keep up where the competition's cost falls at a relentlessly exponential pace. Reactors are, unavoidably, about massive steel and concrete, plumbing, valves, pumps, and steam turbines, none of those getting cheaper.