You vastly underestimate the ability of governments (especially the US government) to come up with byzantine regulations that raise the cost of doing business, regardless of whether those regulations have any actual linkage to the safety or efficacy of what is being regulated.
Your profitability point supports mine - nukes good for shareholders, not for electricity consumers. And in some cases the profitability is due to plants that changed hands on the cheap, leaving the new owner free of the initial capital costs.