Darn it -- new French nuke plant behind schedule, over budget

Regarding the over-budget part, they are over by a lot, but part of it is new inspection pressure brought on by the Fukushima Daiichi catastrophe. But if the French want to lead us to the nuclear renaissance, they're going to have to do a considerably better job of building the plants economically.

New French nuke plant beset by more delays

EDF's 1,650-megawatt Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor was already two years behind schedule and $2.4 billion over budget before Wednesday's announcement, in which the utility says it needs to carry out tougher safety inspections in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Citing "structural and economic reasons" for the new delays, the state-owned company sent notice its flagship plant's costs will increase to $9 billion due to the new requirements while its opening has been pushed back to 2016.