"So what you're saying is that the laissez-faire American politico-economic complex has failed to make nuclear power a success, even after its head start, while the socialist governments of Europe have been able to do so. I know France not only has a functioning fuel-recovery cycle, but imports nuclear waste for processing, at a profit."

No, nothing to do with laissez-faire. But I would say that when people frightened about depleted Uranium then you get a taste for how wacky people are in their irrational fear of anything nuclear. We have more democratic power in America than Europe- citizens affect the laws more easily- problem is we have a misinformed public. [Global warming isn't the only issue rampant with psendo science.]

In addition America is major producer of oil- therefore there is less need of nuclear power. France has no oil and no coal ["The final shovelful of coal has been mined in France, bringing to an end an industry nearly 300 years old". 23 April, 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3651881.stm] therefore they need someway to get power.
America still has a lot oil to mine and American coal is practically limitless and cheap to mine. But despite this it could still be cheaper to use nuclear reactors for electrical power than oil, natural gas, or coal- not even counting the fact of it not producing CO2 or air pollutants. Nuclear power really gets cheaper when you consider importing other types of energy- a ton of reactor fuel equals 160,000 tons of coal- forget the cost of coal, the shipping costs alone is major factor. Laissez-faire is in places like Alaska where people buy small nuclear reactors to replace other kind of generators which need fuel shipped to location.
These small nuclear reactors can dropped in the ground for 30 years without refueling. It's costly in that it's not that efficent compared to larger reactor which change out fuel in months or yearly, but relative other small power plants it's cheaper. A small town gets it power for about 5-6 cents per Kilowatt- [with all servicing {reading the meter, putting new lines, etc} it probably works out higher in final bill, like around +10 cent Kilowatt.]