the kinds of distances that would put a plant safely distant enough from a major city core especially, with the proliferation of distant suburbs and exurbs in the US today. I work with lots of highly educated people (including a few former nuclear engineers, BTW) who commute 40+ miles into a central urban area — they could more easily commute that far in the opposite direction.

Any added infrastructure costs are probably offset by lower prices for land and manual/low-skill labor in less populated areas.