For nuclear power to be successful in the US the following needs to be done:
1. Pick a design
2. Build it over and over again
Economies of scale is as true for nuclear as it is for any other widget (and you don't ned SMRs to do this). Part of the issue was that there were/are so many variations of designs in US, even with the same manufacturer/builder.
France 56 reactors were built in 15 years. Beginning in 1958, Canada built 25 nuclear power reactors over the course of 35 years, with only three of them located outside of Ontario. When Japan started building BWRs in 1989, they averaged 5 years between commencement of building and commercial operation:
I'm sure some tweaking of regulations could be useful, but probably not strictly necessary.
The first one (of a particular design) will be expensive AF, the second will be expensive, but costs will start stabilizing once the logistics chain is running.
1. Pick a design
2. Build it over and over again
Economies of scale is as true for nuclear as it is for any other widget (and you don't ned SMRs to do this). Part of the issue was that there were/are so many variations of designs in US, even with the same manufacturer/builder.
France 56 reactors were built in 15 years. Beginning in 1958, Canada built 25 nuclear power reactors over the course of 35 years, with only three of them located outside of Ontario. When Japan started building BWRs in 1989, they averaged 5 years between commencement of building and commercial operation:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_nuclear_rea...
I'm sure some tweaking of regulations could be useful, but probably not strictly necessary.
The first one (of a particular design) will be expensive AF, the second will be expensive, but costs will start stabilizing once the logistics chain is running.