Unsurprisingly, governments have often taken the lead in promoting, devel­oping and financing nuclear power. Nearly all nuclear power plants operat­ing today were financed and built in regulated utility markets. In fact, much of the financing was provided by governments or with government backing or government guarantees of some kind. They have also used regulatory power to permit utilities building new plants to partially finance construc­tion through the electricity tariff during the construction period (‘allowance for funds used during construction’, AFDC).

There were also cases where private finance coexisted with government financing. For example, in the USA and Germany, commercial financing has been arranged by private sector sponsors. Some plants, for example in France and the UK, were built by government-owned national utility com­panies, some of whose shares are publicly traded. And in some countries, like the Republic of Korea, nuclear plant financing has evolved over time from fully government financed to financing that, despite government own­ership of Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, is subject to commercial rules and conditions so as not to distort an otherwise liberalized market.

For private sector entities engaged in nuclear power plants, government involvement and regulated markets guaranteed a firm customer base and electricity prices sufficiently high to assure a profitable return. Under these conditions, cost overruns and project delays were covered by higher elec­tricity prices and ultimately paid for by customers or from government budgets, thus minimizing the economic risk exposure of investors.