From: The Honest Broker - Substack
By: Roger Pielke Jr.
Date: June 17, 2026
Can America Build Nuclear Again? Part 2
A Half Century of Asymmetric Regulation Explains Why Nuclear Is So Expensive to Build
Today’s installment in this series is motivated by the figure below, which shows U.S. electricity generation trends for natural gas and nuclear starting in 2000: Nuclear generation has remained constant while natural gas generation more than tripled. This post reports what I learned when I looked to better understand the reasons for this divergence.
One big part of the answer: asymmetric federal regulation.
The story in a nutshell: Nuclear power plants are cheap to run, but expensive to build, whereas natural gas plants can be expensive to run, but cheap to build. The cost of capital underlying power plant construction — and the asymmetry between nuclear and natural gas — is a major explanation for the divergent outcomes shown in the figure above. (continue reading)
Can America Build Nuclear Again? Part 2