If it made money, it could be used to overcome the political problems. Just look at oil. Huge ecological disasters and it still keeps on chugging because it makes lots of $$$ for lots of people.
Skimp on containment building? You get Chernobyl. Skimp on wall and backup power? Fukushima. Skimp on relief valve? You get TMI, which while overall harmless was still expensive.
Thanks to Fukushima it got even more expensive, because now they concluded that backup power must be available quickly in the event of a disaster. Which means the availability of the required parts close enough and the ability to bring them by helicopter, if I recall correctly.
High-temperature reactors based on molten salt or TRISO can generally be air cooled, so a ship-based version 'just' needs to survive the worst-case hurricane or tsunami without sinking.
Recall that more than 10k people died from the tsunami, of which on the order of 100 from the reactors when you account for lifetime exposure to radiation. I’d call that safe enough. (Maybe a better analysis around cost of cleanup, I haven’t run those numbers.)
More generally, I think a big part of the cost overruns come from the regulatory environment changing mid-project, requiring construction to rework things, or waiting for inspections.
I think it’s a false dichotomy to say our only choices are strict and ever-increasing regulation, or Chernobyl. 10% less regulation would be positive, and you can bet the engineers working in the industry know which 10% is the most stupid.
Chinese labor is cheaper. If I know that Chinese solar farms or hydroelectric dams cost only $M per megawatt, I can't assume that the West should also be able to build those for about $M per megawatt.
It is difficult to search primary sources if you aren't fluent in Chinese. I personally can only search English-language information about China, the availability of which is influenced by the interests of the bilingual people who understand and translate primary sources.
China doesn't have anything like the press freedom or government transparency of the US. In the US we know when a nuclear project goes over budget because the press and government watchdogs both sound the alarm [1]. In China that may not be possible.
We do have some proxy measures relevant to the Chinese nuclear industry. The number of operating reactors is known and the time between construction start and initial operation is known. We also know the electrical output of each reactor. But turning those numbers into cost numbers requires a lot of guessing or assuming about unknown quantities.
There are about 5-6 countries like Iran, each with a geopolitical imperative to want a bomb in a hurry.
