> where the builders didn't want to be on the hook for the inevitable doubling (or worse) of final cost, so they wrote special rules for new nuclear to be paid in advance and not held to cost estimates.

Sounds relatively fair to me - since the vast majority of delays and cost is government initiated (or enabled: e.g. giving power to NIMBY groups). Ideally there are carve-outs for any delays or cost overruns solely the fault of the builders and operators. Projects like these always will have a certain amount of incompetence and graft to them, unfortunately.

Maybe once/if the nuclear industry can get un-destroyed by the government that destroyed it in the first place, these subsidies can go away. If subsidies are good for green energy, they are good for kickstarting the nuclear energy segment again. If countries can successfully hold the line and stick to a 20 year program of increasing the pace and velocity of building new plants a robust industry just might emerge.