GE wants the government to flip nearly the entire cost for building plants because the cost is so astronomical due to govt. regulations. I don't know all the details, it's not something I follow closely, but I saw Senate testimony about it on CSPAN (yes, I'm that lame). There was an executive for GE there and he said the existing 100 plants are nearing the end of their life span and we need to get working on more now but that the cost (something like 2 billion each) needed to be subsidized by the government.
That's a pretty big hurdle to get over.