> The French, the article says, built 58 (ftfy) reactors, standardizing the parts and processes but still could not control costs This is crazy bad faith at pl

> The French, the article says, built 58 (ftfy) reactors, standardizing the parts and processes but still could not control costs This is crazy bad faith at play here! Between the start of the French nuclear program and the end, two major international accident (TMI and Chornobyl) occurred and lead to massive changes in safety regulations. Of course it's going to have an impact on costs! Also, in the meantime there had been a huge return on operation experience, which allowed to design plants that became cheaper and more efficient to operate (load following is much easier on the second generation than on the first for instance) but obvious lead to changes in design, but that's still part of the learning curve.