[justinsb]

The only nuclear plant under construction in the US is at Plant Vogtle, in Georgia. Regulators set up a system (CWIP) whereby the companies building the plant earn a 10% return on their costs, until the plants come online. I think it's not surprising therefore that costs keep increasing and the delays keep coming. I don't think we can infer that nuclear power plants cannot be built at reasonable cost, rather that we need to consider "regulatory capture" as a significant construction risk.

(Some admittedly one-sided background on CWIP: https://stopcwip.com/ )

[mayama]

Can anyone compare this to new EPR nuclear plant being built in France, that project also ballooned to almost twice the estimated price and a decade late. Do they use cost+profit accounting too?

[natmaka]

In France the budgeted total cost of building the EPR reactor (at Flamanville) was 3.3 billions €. Work began in 2007 for a 2012 delivery

It is not yet completed and the cost is already 19.7 billions €.