[UltraSane]

Over regulation of nuclear energy in the US made it so expensive we didn't replace all fossil fuels with it.

[array_key_first]

I don't think this is true at all.

It's a heavy capex business with very small marginal returns, that takes planning on the order of decades.

AKA, a US company's worst nightmare. Investors don't like that shit, they like half-baked software that code monkeys can pump out.

[UltraSane]

A fully paid off nuclear reactor is extremely profitable because of little fuel cost.

[rbanffy]

Operating a commercial reactor and keeping it up to regulations isn’t exactly cheap. It requires people, periodic inspections, maintenance, and lots of paperwork to prove you are not cutting corners.

[vablings]

When the cost of people is more than the cost of equipment, upkeep and maintenance that is arguably exactly when overregulation becomes burdensome

[ImPostingOnHN]

"upkeep and maintenance" is largely composed of people costs – the people doing the upkeep and maintenance.

indeed, that's the case for many businesses, even with little-to-no regulation, so it's hard to agree with your opinion there.

e.g. most of the cost of hiring a plumber is a "cost of people" – buying torch fuel and fittings is a much smaller fraction of it.

[vablings]

I guess I should separate what I mean by this. If you need plumbing work usually you have to pull permits from the city, depending on where you live that could be a small portion of the cost or a large majority of the cost. I am not advocating for the removal of say skilled operators and technicians. I am against overwhelming bureaucracy with paper documents lengthy processing times and fringe regulations.

The biggest issues people usually have with any construction work is dealing with the city/county because they throw up the most roadblocks and you do not have the freedom to choose, in the case that there is no free market available the regulation must be good, cheap and efficient, a bit off topic but alas

[UltraSane]

Operating a nuclear reactor is in fact very cheap since there is very little fuel cost.

[ViewTrick1002]

Nuclear power in a the US was collapsing due to cost and schedule overruns already before TMI.

Blaming regulations seems like trying to find a scapegoat rather than admitting reality.