Maybe, but it's definitely not delayed 9 or 17 or how many years. I don't know where your $2b number comes from but it's also not trillions. Nukes just work, for USN, which is about the most secure, rational, effectively bureaucratic organization in the history of humanity.

The US has long sabotaged, sometimes figuratively and sometimes literally, nuclear development efforts of everyone but itself. Especially fuel recycling which scalably yield nuclear warhead materials. One could say call it a noble act, but the resultant "problems, delays, overruns" aren't indicative of true potential of the technology.

See where kragen had to find negative examples from, those are "enemy" states of the US. How convenient is that.