I worked for a Campbell, CA nuclear engineering partial employee-owned co-op formed by mostly ex-General Electric engineers (Stanford and Berkeley alums) ultima

I worked for a Campbell, CA nuclear engineering partial employee-owned co-op formed by mostly ex-General Electric engineers (Stanford and Berkeley alums) ultimately acquired by Curtiss-Wright Corp. (And yes, computers were named after Simpsons' characters.) Costs are related to the assurance of safety through careful documentation and processes beginning with regulation and insurance underwriting of design engineering, construction, operations, and maintenance. This sort of thing only makes sense to do so at large scale to make it economical. Scale also has its costs. Safety isn't something that can be Boeing'ed because the NRC can and will shut the whole thing down if it were to be found unsafe.