Electrical production needs to be market-driven, not government-directed

This regulated stagnation would be worse if all automobile and truck designs were required to be individually approved by the "Automobile Regulatory Commission" after being designed and re-approved before they could be built, just because these machines result in more than 40,000 deaths per year. Of course, this radical step is not being contemplated.

Yet, the NRC is worse because the nuclear power industry has killed nobody in almost 7 decades of regular operation. We can find no logical narrative in any document to explain this.

So, all we ask is equity (everyone should like that) with the automotive industry. We set safety standards that must be met by all companies, large and small. We monitor the industry for violations of these standards and make appropriate corrections.

The "National Reactor Safety Administration" could replace the Nuclear Regulatory Administration. In a competitive world, companies could build and market their wares and try to outdo each other in price, innovation, variety of products, and flexibility, just as it works in the automobile industry.

What is at stake is the quality of life for all US citizens (indeed, the world) as they would be allowed to pick the electricity delivery method that best suits their needs. The airline and telephone industries were forced to "deregulate" in the past decades, much to the consumer's benefit. All citizens can now afford to fly if they desire, and long-distance phone calling is now free for the cost of renting a phone.

Deregulating the electricity market would be far simpler and beneficial to all citizens.

We are facing an escalating demand for electricity, which we have not seen in at least two decades. Data centers are profitable at $3 per kWh of electricity. Once the bidding war starts, where would that leave existing residential and commercial customers? We have shown how recycling the existing stockpiles of slightly used nuclear fuel in fast reactors could produce so much supply that profits could be made at pennies per kWh.

So, the question is: Will US citizens tolerate a dollar per kWh of electricity under a monopoly system, or will they demand a penny per kWh of power in a free enterprise system? We, the co-authors, know what we would advocate.