@cjd @p @nanook
>I'm fairly convinced that the reason we don't have cheap power is more or less entirely a political matter.

it's a matter of finance.
as an intern, i ran numbers for an investment firm my first year of grad school.

it's really just not profitable to build nukes. they take a long time to build and they cost a lot.

if it was possible to make cheap power, you could just do it, nobody is stopping you from putting down a power plant on a strip of land, i worked with solar farms a few years ago there is basically no barrier to entry for those guys you just pay the money and wire it into the grid.