[JTBooth]

It would be nice if, say, ten million dollars into the process of preparing blueprints, the agency could look over the prints and the plans for the remaining prints and say "yes it looks like you're on the right track, make sure the reactor wall you decide on isn't too heavy for those struts." In a much more precise way that probably costs a million bucks, of course.

Regulatory intervention could happen at any point in the process. You could imagine an even worse world where the first inspection is after the plant is built, and changes are typically requested to the high level design.

[mateo1]

NRC is not a free consultancy group for postgrads who think they can build a nuclear reactor on their own.

[nine_k]

NRC's services don't necessarily need to be free. But they should be reasonable, both in fees, and in the process. They are a service run by government.

[wrycoder]

And it shows.

[LegitShady]

> They are a service

They are not a service. They are a regulator. It's almost the opposite of a service.

[nine_k]

Any governmental agency is formally in service of the public good.

Are they doing a reasonable job of that?

[LegitShady]

> in service of the public good.

being in service of the public good is not offering a service. Their job is to regulate industry, not offer it a service.

If you want a service you hire someone to fulfill it. The US government created the 'service' but not for industry, but for the regulation of industry. The 'service' isn't offered to industry for the good of industry. It's the opposite of a normal understanding of service.

If you are regulated have no choice whether to take the service or not, and your say in their 'services' is extremely limited.

Calling it a service is an activity in intentionally misleading what an organization like the NCR does. They are not a service. They are a regulator.

You are intentionally conflating two disparate definitions of service ('they offer a service' vs 'they are in the service of') and really for no gain except to come up with your own mandate for an NCR that already has one, and doesn't care about your opinion because they receive their mandate from government and not from you and your intentionally misleading arguments.

[cnlevy]

At home, I have a water pressure regulator. It came welded shut by the manufacturer because, no water flowing at all means no risk of overpressure at all.

Regulation doesn't means only hindering the industry, but accompanying its development safely through overseeing.

[DennisP]

No, NRC services are not free. They charge several hundred dollars per hour.

All the reactor people were asking for was to pay in several stages, instead of all at the end after a very expensive reactor design process.

[pmoriarty]

It seems strange to me that they'd want that rather than finding out up-front before they spent a much greater amount of money actually building something which might be rejected.

[RealityVoid]

They do want that. The guys didn't want blid acceptance, just doing this in stages so that they can focus on the things that might need improvement.

[DennisP]

Yes, exactly. I'm trying to figure out how I could have communicated better, since so many people here are so wildly misinterpreting what I wrote.