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| Nuclear insurance pools have paid $151 million ($70 million related to the ] ] ]) and the DOE $65 million since Price-Anderson was enacted. | Nuclear insurance pools have paid $151 million ($70 million related to the ] ] ]) and the DOE $65 million since Price-Anderson was enacted. | ||
| There is some question how an industry which is truly safe and does not harm the public has nonetheless spent a very large amount of money in radiation release incidents. Renewable energy technologies have never injured persons in a way which would cause $216 million dollars in insurable liabilities. | |||
| ==External Links== | ==External Links== | ||
Revision as of 06:31, 24 June 2005
The Price-Anderson Act, enacted in 1957 as Section 170 of the Atomic Energy Act, makes available a large pool of funds (as of 2004, approximately 9.5 billion dollars) to provide prompt compensation to members of the public who incur damages from a nuclear or radiological incident, no matter who might be liable. Price-Anderson covers, and will continue to cover, all nuclear facilities constructed before 2002 - an extension is required to cover facilities built after that year.
Power reactor licensees are required to have primary insurance ($200 million dollars each as of 2001) and to contribute up to $88 million each in the event of an incident. Thus, the 9.5 billion dollars is supplied completely by the nuclear industry. 10 CFR Part 140 codifies the above. In the event that claims exceed the pool of funds Congress is required to consider covering the excess cost, possibly by establishing additional assessments against the industry.
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Without the Price-Anderson Act, nuclear plant operators would have to insure for the full cost of any possible nuclear incident. Because (before Chernobyl) no one could quantify what the maximum coverage necessary would be, financiers were unwilling to insure the possible risk. Therefore, no private operator in the United States would have built a nuclear facility without the Price-Anderson Act. Thus the extension of the Price-Anderson Act is probably essential to the construction of future nuclear power plants in the US (see Nuclear Power 2010 Program).
Price-Anderson also covers DOE facilities but not the nuclear Navy (which has not had a nuclear accident).
The constitutionality of the Price-Anderson Act was challenged in 1975 and upheld by the Supreme Court in June, 1978.
Nuclear insurance pools have paid $151 million ($70 million related to the 1979 Three Mile Island meltdown) and the DOE $65 million since Price-Anderson was enacted.
There is some question how an industry which is truly safe and does not harm the public has nonetheless spent a very large amount of money in radiation release incidents. Renewable energy technologies have never injured persons in a way which would cause $216 million dollars in insurable liabilities.
External Links
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