R. Scott Kemp, teaching MIT's 22.04 Social Problems of Nuclear Energy, examines why nuclear power plants cost so much more to build in some countries than others. He compares construction costs across nations, including cases where nuclear has stayed relatively affordable, and breaks down the underlying drivers behind these differences, from regulatory regimes to construction practices and supply chains. Kemp also addresses learning curves in large infrastructure projects, asking whether repeated construction of similar reactor designs can drive costs down the way it has in other industries, and what that implies for future reactor programs. Running 74 minutes as part of the Fall 2025 course, the lecture treats nuclear economics as a policy and engineering problem rather than an ideological one, using cross-country cost data as its main evidence.