[gamegoblin]

Any set of nuclear regulations that aren't just a copy of France's nuclear regulations are probably too restrictive. France gets 3/4 of their electricity from nuclear without any major incidents.

(Obviously this is overly simplistic, there is a set of natural disasters that France isn't subject to that other countries are, so France is just a starting point. But every addition should be justified by answer the question "What about our circumstances makes us different from France here?")

[Gwypaas]

Half of France's nuclear fleet is offline due to maintenance issues. They've gone from an electricity exporter to importer when it is most needed.

Have a look at Flamanville 3 and try to sell another 50 of those to the public.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamanville_Nuclear_Power_Plan...

[gamegoblin]

And yet... no major safety events and still generating a significant amount of electricity.

Obviously, as you point out, it could be better. But I'll take France, issues and all, over coal plants every day of the week.

I expect France will get their act together.

Re: net importer, their amount of import is basically a rounding error, on the order of 0.1% of their energy usage. They are energy neutral.

[Gwypaas]

The great thing is that the alternative is not coal plants anymore, it is renewables.

https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-energy-...

[acidburnNSA]

LCOE is unrelated to systems costs of large decarbonized grid because it leaves out the costs of long-term backup, increased transmission, overcapacity needed to fill the night batteries, and more.