From Nuclear finance will rely on consumers’ stomach for risk:
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Nuclear power projects prove too tricky to fund through normal project financing methods. Upfront costs are high and construction is lengthy. If the company set up to construct the project defaulted, a half-built nuclear plant would be pretty worthless as security. The interest lenders would demand for that level of risk would simply make projects unviable, says Jens Weibezahn, assistant professor at the Copenhagen Business School.1
This is an interesting observation that I hadn’t considered; nobody wants to finance the construction of these projects because they’re so risky and lack collateral. This suggests that the government’s role in AI may be to underwrite the construction of power plants that are deemed too risky for conventional financiers. Big tech may do some of it, but I’m sure they’d rather not.