How about the possibility that the board made a huge mistake and virtually everyone working for the company got pissed?

> So nuclear operators are freeloading on society for decades making billions of profits

Funny. I have the opposite take. Society has freeloaded off of nuclear for a generation or two by ignoring the wider social benefits and putting all the risk on the operators.

Cheap, clean, reliable power matters. That we made it expensive via some made up social construct isn't very material to me in the bigger picture.

> As a car driver I need to insure my car,

As a car driver you pay a tiny fraction of your externalized costs to society. Most folks recognize this and are ok with the situation because of the wider social benefits overall.

1 in 6 American workers stay in unwanted jobs just to keep their healthcare [0]. Is that so different? Americans will tell you with a straight face that giving people free college will affect the numbers joining the military - is that so different?

Also, seems to me that the 8 trillion, with a t, dollars that were spent creating terror in the middle east would have bought a few panels. To compare directly, the highest estimate for transitioning the US to 100% renewable electricity is 5.7 trillion dollars [1].

So, if we'd just killed about 600,000 fewer civilians we could afford the change. Pointing fingers at China is easier than accepting our own actions, but you know, there's a lot to be said for taking responsibility for what one can actually change.

0 - https://news.gallup.com/poll/349094/workers-stay-unwanted-jo...

1 - https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/cost-of...