My personal experience is that each of these utility company’s that wanted to build nukes got way in over their heads too fast.
The feds should have had standardized designs for boiling water reactors and pressure water reactors. The only modification would be based upon seismic conditions. In reality each of these plants is a one off design (except for twin or triplet reactors. In Washington we had WPPSS (Washington Public Power Supply System) that set out to build 5 reactors (Plant 1&4PWR twins Richland, WA) (Plants 3&5 PWR twins, Satsop, WA) and (Plant 2 BWR Richland, WA). Plants 1&4 were completely different in building layout and design then Plants 3&5 and in the end none of those 4 were ever completed. Only plant 2 was completed in 1984 and is operational today.
My point is you can’t blame this all on the union guys standing around. We had to stand around because of the constant redesign of the smallest of systems. Multiple plants that were twins or triplets didn’t really face these issues because the first plant would get all the redesign and the later plants were built that much faster. As a example at the time they shut down Plant 1&4 plant one had been under construction for 5 years and was estimated 80% and plant 4 had only been under construction for 3 years and was 65%. The joke was that plant 4 would be completed before plant 1.
Ya....well, since I graduated from Kennewick High in 71, and Dad worked at Hanford from 1955-97, I’m a bit familiar w goings on at WPPSS.
Yes, in my Master’s paper on nuclear power, I too advocated for standardized designs.
It wasn’t the “standing around” I meant to emphasis, rather the control the unions had over the cost, schedule, and quality of the project.