The unit scale frontier of nuclear power increased fivefold in the decade that followed commissioning of the first 50 MW commercial reactor in 1956. Ultimately, these rapid increases in unit size were a contributing factor to the rising complexity that created diseconomies of scale and constrained further growth of the industry in the late 1970s (Lovins et al., In many cases, learning is facilitated by relationships between industry actors (supported by public investments in, for example, testing infrastructure) to ensure experiences feed back into subsequent designs (Garud and Karnoe, 2003). When this policy-supported process of collective learning is absent, the development of viable domestic technological capability and industry can fail (Neij and Andersen, 2014).