Convincing an already scared-of-nuclear population to allow the building of an experimental (big, scary word) reactor after a disaster like Fukushima is a madde

Convincing an already scared-of-nuclear population to allow the building of an experimental (big, scary word) reactor after a disaster like Fukushima is a maddening prospect for an entrepreneur or even an established company. It more than 25 years between the Three Mile Island "disaster" and the start of construction of new nuclear reactors. It's a miracle they were approved so shortly after Fukushima, but by the time you're ready to issue construction permits hundreds of millions if not billions have already been invested. A full blown reactor (with immediate infrastructure) costs at least $2-3 billion in markets with cheap labor and upwards of $5-10 billion in the developed world. The other issue is that most of the cost of mining, processing, and storing fuel and waste is externalized, which much of the government is no longer as willing to do after Yucca Mountain was canceled. If it costs that much to build a reactor, how much does it cost to test a new design?