[r00fus]

> Unfortunately, when they shuddered the project after the implementation of practical ICBMs, industry politics discredited MSR's in favour of the reactor-types we have now.

So essentially what you're seeing is the result of decades of regulatory capture of the NRC by the nuclear industry.

[angersock]

I think the missing factor is that there are massive regulatory hurdles in the way of testing new designs, no?

[fennecfoxen]

... well, yeah: placing massive hurdles in the way of potential competitors and their technologies is about half of the premise of regulatory capture...