The post-World War II Atoms for Peace program failed to convince the electric utilities to invest in nuclear power. Insurance companies would only cover $250 million of potential damages from an accident. The government brought the utilities cooperation with the Price-Anderson Act requiring each atomic plant to buy the maximum commercial insurance and provided a second level of coverage from a pool funded by a potential assessment of up to $10 million against each plant. Under the protection of this act about 109 nuclear plants were built, and licensed for 30 years. The act limited the industries liability to $10 billion with the public to absorb anything over that amount.

Over the years the population density and property values near nuclear plants increased. Potential damages from a major accident, an event considered inevitable by the Union of Concerned Scientists, were estimated to be as much as $350 billion. The Supreme Court ruled the Price-Anderson liability limits constitutional.

In 2005 the Price-Anderson Act was revised raising the industries second-level limits to $15 billion with automatic adjustments for inflation and extending the plants licenses for an additional 20 years increasing the likelihood of an accident. It is now estimated that the public would have to absorb as much as 98 percent of the costs of a meltdown! Nuclear power is not cheap, we just haven’t had to pay the bill yet.

The Price-Anderson Act is an obscene example of the privatization of profits and the socialization of risks. It is shameful that both major political parties consider nuclear energy as an alternative. Let’s raise hell with our politicians. No more nukes!

John E. Gibson

Blooming Prairie