The world's beleaguered nuclear industry continues to take a battering. The "nuclear renaissance" juggernaut that once seemed unstoppable now appears dead in its tracks.

The cabinet of Germany's conservative government on Monday voted to take the country out of nuclear permanently by 2022. Not to be outdone on the right, the country's opposition parties say that's not fast enough.

The conservative party in the state of Bavaria has gone even further and says that while it was first in German nuclear power, it will now be first in exiting nuclear. Bavaria, known as the "Texas of Germany" for its conservatism, gets more than 50 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy.

But it's the sheer cost of nuclear that may overwhelm any industry "renaissance."

Little data exists on the actual cost of new nuclear generation. Rumors persist in Ontario, Canada, that the government's delay in building its promised new reactors was due to "sticker shock" after receiving costly proposals. Whatever the reason for delay, the actual costs of the proposals are being hidden from public view.

So policy discussions are often dependent on studies of nuclear's cost by organizations with a particular axe to grind.