Distrust of nuclear power in the US has long been entrenched.

So much so that State-by-State regulations differ so much that it is illegal to construct standardized designs like France, Russia, and India do, which would lower costs and improve quality, and therefore safety because identical designs would be able to mass produce parts, share operation procedures improvements to improve safety, and so forth.

Instead, each plant has to be individually designed to each state’s regulations, built using expensive custom parts, and each behaves slightly differently and safety procedures can’t be directly shared.

https://thebulletin.org/2019/06/why-nuclear-power-plants-cost-so-much-and-what-can-be-done-about-it/