I believe we are starting to build them again, however they aren't a free market solution. Large plants require financial backing and insurance guarantees by the federal government.
The future of nuclear power should be smaller plants supported by the free market used in niche applications.
Assets:
JPMorgan $2.3 trillion
Bank of America $2.1 trillion
Goldman Sachs $950 billion
Morgan Stanley $781 billion
Well, there’s over $6 trillion of assets, always looking for very large investments, smartest guys around, etc.
The also buy and sell Credit Default Swaps and other hedges.
There’s also private equity that has a lot of capital to invest, and they’re experts at managing risk. Of course, nowadays they’re looking bad because they’re the ones who are the market makers for worthless junk sovereign debt, and governments of the world are not going to let them out of that business. Well, until the defaults happen, then the governments will actually blame the mess on the banks and probably nationalize them, but I digress.
There’s plenty of investable capital in the private sector. There’s very little in the Federal government. The government has liabilities, no liquid assets, just a lot of land. The Federal government lives literally paycheck to paycheck.
The guarantees they provide are underwritten by the taxpayer.
The total amount of insurance in force in the U.S. is well into the trillions. Insurance companies share risk when cases are too big for one company.
And the insurance guys would be sending inspectors to make sure the place was safe as possible, just like they do with all the policies they underwrite.
If government had, from the start, simply not offered guarantees, insurance companies would have supplied policies. Of course, if an industry lobbyist can call Congressmen and tell them it’s necessary, the government will pretty much do whatever they’re told by the lobbyist.