The Standardization Myth
Figure 1. Overnight nuclear plant cost in 2010 dollars as a function of start of construction from \cite{lovering-2016}. The French system never produced plants at should-cost. The cheapest French plants were double the cost of the cheapest American plants in real terms. There is no evidence of a learning curve in the French experience.
I've been getting lots of complimentary comments from the choir on Alex Chalmers' article on the French nuclear build out. The piece is well written, and contains some interesting history I did not know; but Alex puts way too much emphasis on standardization. Voluntary improvements do not increase cost or build times; they reduce them.
The reason for the success of the French program is simple. There was no independent (aka autocratic) regulator. EDF self-regulated until the 1990's. With the development of an independent French regulator after that, French nuclear was doomed.
The French experience is a striking example of what happens when you switch from regulation by an entity that has broad responsibility for providing affordable, reliable electricity to regulation by an autocratic bureaucracy whose job is to prevent a release.
So it may not be the standardisation as the main reason for Frances clean grid with affordable power(even if not perfect with "should be costs" this kind of grid and prices are gold standard and envy from current European perspective for most of the old continent).
Another (lost) skill is to build so fast without making too many of mistakes. How to deal with NIMBYism, red tapes, litigations. Can it be done without strong federal government in face of some kind of energy/climate crisis? Support for NP in Poland is as high as reasonably it can be, yet site choice process, vendors decisions, contracts and starting to pour any concrete goes dissapointingly slow. Fear of cost is high at the same time and for good reasons(US NRC is the "gold standard" so there would be one hypothesis to explain it...).
Something interesting for NPP in France(for me at least) is the metastasis of German antinuclear lunacy. France clearly forgot about own success and flirted with poison of shutdowns (SuperPheanix and PWR loss). I remember watching France24 as a breakfast TV in 2010s. It was clearly better in reporting international news than for example BBC(judging by reports from Poland that I could compare with own understanding), but it felt that environmental programs ("Back to earth") used to praise "Green Germany and energiewende" like it would have been the only example to follow. They clearly forgot to invest in (objective in that case) education about own achievements during the time when trying to export own NPP industry.
Keep up good work!
-Marcin