Nuclear plant and coal plant construction didn't really stop at the same time, though. In the early 21st century before the fracking boom took off in the US, na

Nuclear plant and coal plant construction didn't really stop at the same time, though. In the early 21st century before the fracking boom took off in the US, natural gas prices were rising. This spurred a small spurt of new coal plant construction in the US. Their operating start dates cluster around 2010 though construction starts were earlier: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=30812 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=30812 The bad news is that coal fired power can be cheaper than gas fired power when gas prices are high. If coal and nuclear alike were dominated by the cost of steam equipment, we should have seen a similar burst of nuclear reactors starting to operate in the US around that time. Nuclear power plants are sadly more expensive to build and operate than coal plants. The good news is that falling costs for renewables and storage make it very unlikely that the US will build any more coal-fired plants on economic grounds.