I think you misunderstand the concept of the word modern and new when applied to the word nuclear reactor.
I never used either word in any of my posts.
So we should abandon aircraft, transition everyone to cars, and suck up all of the increased deaths in road accidents. Makes sense.
Can we actually get back to the cost involved in delays?
No, but as you note, the public’s concept of perceived risk can’t be ignored. Do you think people would fly if 2,000 737s crashed, killing everyone on board, in the US every year? The public is willing to accept a diffused risk, even if the actual aggregate risk is higher than a competing technology. Technologies that have the potential to cause mass casualties need to be much, much safer than the technologies they are attempting to displace.
That said, my opposition to Nuke power is more focused on the waste disposal, proliferation, and deliberate attack than it is on operations.
TVA will start up a new nuke plant in 2013. Prior to that the last new plant to start was in 96.
Far,far beyond the lifetime of our species qualifies as forever.