The US government serves the national interest by investing in research that benefits our economic and energy independence. New nuclear energy technologies can satisfy the long term energy generation needs while exceeding large reactors in safety.
Beyond national lab research, the government can stage crowd-sourced competitions and change regulations to incentivize faster private development of small modular nuclear reactors in the US.
While natural gas, solar, and wind run about $1000/kW. Large reactors can run $7000/kW. Small modular reactors are estimated at half the cost of large reactors per kw. "The Energy Options Network, sourcing private estimates from SMR companies, found an average cost of $3,782/kW for eight advanced reactor designs, with two plants below $2,500/kW [23]. Black et al. estimate a base construction cost of a NuScale plant at $3,465/kW [24]. "