Reply #17: Actually they cost a lot less than $8 billion per plant.

[TheWraith]

And Obama hasn't "given" anything, he's providing loan guarantees, which cost nothing as long as the conditions are met.

The only reason that nuclear power has been so expensive in the US is because of astroturf efforts to terrify people about it, paid for by the oil and coal industry. In China they're building Westinghouse AP-1000 plants, brand new cutting edge designs that are really amazing pieces of engineering, for $2 billion each. The Chinese plan to build about 100 of the things. So far we've also got 14 licenses to build AP-1000s here in the US.

And a nuclear plant will withstand a full-speed impact by a jetliner without cracking open.