Nuclear plants have to be constructed using certified products that meet NRC regulatory standards. Certification of materials as nuclear grade increases costs by between 20-40% for concrete and steel. With products such as nuclear grade duct tape going for as much as $60 per roll as compared with conventional market costs at 2$ per roll.
Instead of a QA/QC check on each of the materials, certification should be performed by the relevent agency via random sampling at the manufacturing plant level. Certification of suppliers would allow for open market costs rather than wasted effort on QA/QC costs and present an opportunity to cut costs by an estimated 30%.