Why would forging be a requirement? Hasn't material science reached a point where we can built alloys that can be just cast into the right shape? Can't the problem of them being slightly weaker be solved by just making them thicker (not a problem for nuclear I'd guess bc you don't build that many pieces and you don't need to move them much), or by just having stuff like turbines replaced more often?

I know that mixing "nuclear" + "cheaper manufacturing" sounds scary, but maybe it's a better idea... why would you need "best of the best" materials for pieces that (1) stay in one place (they're not airplanes!) and (2) can be replaced/serviced/inspected on fixed schedules following fixed procedures on fixed budgets etc.

Modern forges were perfected by the germans in the war because they wanted to build airplane parts (!!) and they wanter to build them fast... I'd imagine nuclear power technology has none of this requirements and can be re-designed to work with commodity low-quality parts and have the movable pieces easily replace-able...

(I'd imagine that if people would get over the "uuh, nuclear, scarry, scarry" mindset nuclear technology could become a dirt cheap commodity and be build with a mixture of ceramics + cheap alloys just fine...)