Laura Flanders is the host of Working Assets Radio, heard on KALW-FM in San Francisco, and author of Real Majority, Media Minority: The Cost of Sidelining Women in Reporting.
|
Price-Anderson is why your home insurance policy says, "This policy does not cover loss or damage caused by nuclear reaction." Go ahead, check. It's there in black and white. You can't get protection from a nuclear accident, but the nuclear industry can. |
Legislation limiting insurance company liability for terrorist-related damages is moving ahead in Washington. Taxpayers already bailed out the airlines, now the government wants us to help out private insurance companies too. As you can imagine, politicians on both sides of the aisle have strong opinions, meaning that members of both parties are performing for their cash constituents, namely, campaign contributors.
Democrats have been out there, defending the rights of injured plaintiffs and the profits of their lawyers, who are big givers to the Democratic campaigns. Republicans are valiantly warding off the greedy plaintiffs on behalf of beleaguered corporations, especially those who support the GOP.
If recent events are any guide, we can be sure that one key interest group will be left out: Everyday Americans, that's who.
Limiting insurance liability is not a new issue in the current Congress. Already this month, a House committee approved the 15-year extension of an accident insurance law that protects no one but the nuclear power industry -- and does it at taxpayer expense. The extension of the legislation, the Price-Anderson Act, passed through committee on Halloween on a voice vote, sans debate. Its supporters are pushing for the full House to vote on the matter under suspension of normal floor rules, which means minimal debate and no amendments at all.
The Price-Anderson Act is what makes nuclear power possible. At the beginning of the nuclear age, utility companies wouldn't go near the nuclear power business because they knew no sane insurance firm would accept responsibility for any accident. The nuclear lobby arranged for Congress to pass what became the Price-Anderson Act of 1957. It was to be a temporary, ten-year measure to "encourage the private development of nuclear power." That's what its supporters testified. Forty-five years later, Price-Anderson is facing a 2002 expiration date. It's enough to send shock waves through the nuclear power industry.
Price-Anderson is why your home insurance policy says, "This policy does not cover loss or damage caused by nuclear reaction." Go ahead, check. It's there in black and white. You can't get protection from a nuclear accident, but the nuclear industry can.
Price-Anderson limits liability for a nuclear accident, no matter how many people are killed or injured, and how many billions are lost. It sets a ceiling on the damages victims can recover from insurance companies, and makes the federal government pick up a good portion of the tab. As of 1988, nuclear utilities -- as a group -- are required to purchase $200 million worth of insurance and together they've got to fund a $9 billion pool for larger accident claims. Upwards of $9 billion, the bill commits federal funds.
Well September 11 showed us just how far $9 billion goes; Congress' inadequate emergency package stands at $40 billion. A leaked 1982 Sandia National Labs study quantified the cost of a catastrophic nuclear power accident in the U.S. as $313 billion then, or about $600 billion today. The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident cost Ukraine, Belarus and southern Russia an estimated $350 billion, just for a little comparison.
This fall's events have also showed us just how vulnerable the nation is to an attack on nuclear sites. At last count there were 103 plants licensed to operate in the United States, in addition to various spent fuel sites, and every day another state gets nervous and sends its National Guard troops to do plant-patrol. Nuclear terrorism is "a far more likely" threat than previously thought, so said the head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency not long ago.
If members of Congress were truly worried about liability, eliminating Price-Anderson would be a good place to start. It would go a long way towards solving the protection problem too, because without Price-Anderson, nuclear plants would be uninsurable and every one would shut up tight.
source: http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/11/15/1.html 16nov01
|
If you have come to this page from an outside location click here to get back to mindfully.org |