The costs of a reliable grid and sufficiently dispatchable electricity are gonna get paid one way or another if the grid customers expect that level of service.

The costs of a reliable grid and sufficiently dispatchable electricity are gonna get paid one way or another if the grid customers expect that level of service. There are lots of ways those costs can be allocated - from user fees in deregulated markets or from ratepayers in vertically integrated systems, and probably a million permutations in between - but those costs are there and someone’s gonna pay them. A long-life highly available nuke plant at 3x the cost of nameplate renewable production doesn’t seem like much more than an immaterial cost difference at the end of the day.