[jeffbee]

> after permitting

Load-bearing parenthetical!

> Nuclear power plants take something like a decade to build

The most-recently completed fission power station on this planet needed 23 years under construction and it is still in testing. A recent American one took 15 years.

[protocolture]

When the brits were at it (With insourced nuclear engineering and low regulatory overhead) they could crank them out every 6 - 8 years.

The brits let all that technical capability wither and could not do it again right now.

But if someone was willing its still theoretically possible. Just takes total alignment between government and private.

[jeffbee]

OK, but people who want these actually have to build them in the countries that exist. This isn't Civilization. You cannot switch to a civic that gets more hammers at the beginning of your next turn.

[protocolture]

Sure but the argument against nuclear is always the same. Its hard right now.

The problem is that if you dont start correcting that hardness now, the next time you think you might need a nuclear industry, its still hard.

You need to train, grant experience and give money to professionals so they can exist to build stuff. It took the UK ~ 15 years to get started, then they were cranking them out like no ones business.

Think of it this way, in 15 years you can have something you might need, or you can guarantee you wont have it whether you need it or not.

Thing is its the same for all large infrastructure products. But only in nuke do we have people actively trying to prevent the industry from being created and maintained so they can use the unreadyness as an excuse.

[nemomarx]

How do you get the expertise back on a dime?

You have to tack on a few slow builds that create talent and local knowledge for that, or poaching people from China Operation Paperclip style maybe.

[XorNot]

It's why the Vogtle plant is on track to lead to the worst possible outcome: yes it was very expensive. So the best thing to do is to start building another one right away while all those lessons and skills are still current.

[jeffbee]

Or we could just use solar and batteries that can be installed by a combination of literally any basic carpenters, electricians, and truckers.