While I can't verify your assertion of the corruption between government and the current nuclear industry, that possibility is definitely there. Nefarious forces may indeed be tilting the playing field.

In the 1980s, the electrical industry in Canada made it exceedingly difficult for anyone to put up a wind turbine. If a farmer put up such a device, he was taken off the main grid. Through government action, those barriers were dismantled. Now wind power is a viable partner in electrical generation. But it was definitely a case of established players protecting their profits.

The big barrier to thorium in Canada is just the word "nuclear". Unfortunately.