A big problem with projects like these (nuclear and even renewable, but to a bit lesser of a degree) is that these projects outlast leadership. It then becomes easy to support something and it never get done. You make a big speech, but a few gears into motion, but more pressing stuff takes priority because a voter's attention is less than an election cycle. Truth is that if they work hard, get everything in motion you have 1 of 2 outcomes: 1) the next person gets all the praise because it is finished under their leadership or 2) the project goes into major delay as the next leadership doesn't prioritize it (often because it was the previous party's platform).
Honestly I think we could get a lot more done if people were able to disentangle when policies were achieved from when they were implemented. Governments are fantastic for long term investments, but politics works on shorter timeframes than many corporations. Though I think changing the cultural mentality to provide that selective pressure is an unrealistic pipedream. That said, it does also really show the constraints that we operate under and why existential issues like climate change are extremely difficult to solve.
Honestly I think we could get a lot more done if people were able to disentangle when policies were achieved from when they were implemented. Governments are fantastic for long term investments, but politics works on shorter timeframes than many corporations. Though I think changing the cultural mentality to provide that selective pressure is an unrealistic pipedream. That said, it does also really show the constraints that we operate under and why existential issues like climate change are extremely difficult to solve.