Yes. SpaceX was experimenting with private money until something stuck with a few tiny pushes from the government buying risky launch contracts after they had already proven themselves.
Looking at the current crop of nuclear startups they are relying on government handouts until those run out and then they silently disappear. Making absolutely no progress on the economics of nuclear power.
Today no one talks about NuScale anymore, because they had to admit not solving the problem. Instead it is the latest PowerPoint reactor still being able to claim it is cheap, fast to build and ”by default safe”.
5-10 years earlier the name of the game was mPower. Until that became too expensive.
Looking at the current crop of nuclear startups they are relying on government handouts until those run out and then they silently disappear. Making absolutely no progress on the economics of nuclear power.
Today no one talks about NuScale anymore, because they had to admit not solving the problem. Instead it is the latest PowerPoint reactor still being able to claim it is cheap, fast to build and ”by default safe”.
5-10 years earlier the name of the game was mPower. Until that became too expensive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%26W_mPower
Keep throwing private money at it, and launch demonstrators when they like SpaceX prove they have something to the world.
The current status of massive handouts with nothing in return is just laughable.