Canada and China Win, US Loses

When it comes to nuclear power, fear is the enemy?

China just brought their second small modular reactor (SMR) online, and has micro-reactors deployed in 3 remote areas. Two designs that are operational, one fairly conventional and one a pebble bed (which runs on nuclear waste). There is a third that is Thorium based, but I consider it more of a battery than a reactor. All three are in commission.

Canada has moved dirt on their first SMR, with 3 more in series on the same site.

Neither Canada or China have the level of litigation that the US has available, so while there are 2 SMR designs that are fully approved, and a design for a micro reactor that is close to approval, the US is likely to be years, if not decades behind Canada.

Canada is scheduled to commission their first SMR in 2030 and the three additional reactors by 2034 at the same site. There is a possibility that as many as a dozen same design reactors will be in commission by 2040, maybe even 20, depending on what the provinces decide based on the first one.
China has a commitment to 150 large reactors, giving it more reactors than France or the US. There are hints from CEPRI that as many as 10 could be under construction at a time. Those 150 reactors will produce the same amount of energy as 800 GW of solar (4 million acres of good farmland filled with solar panels).

The US? If we are lucky, we will finish 2 unfinished reactors, restart 3 reactors, and maybe finish 3 SMR by 2040. Not even enough to feed the AI Data Centers in Virginia that are due to be in commission by 2030. In the early 1970s large reactors were completed in less than 4 years. Today, with permits and litigation and… The first shovel of dirt is not moved in 4 years.

So how should the US proceed? Pay Canada for the power, and let them build SMR a mile north of the border? Or fix our system of building? Or continue to outsource everything to China? OR?