Nuclear dilemma: Adequate insurance too expensive

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: AP

BERLIN (AP) — From the U.S. to Japan, it's illegal to drive a car without sufficient insurance, yet governments have chosen to run the world's 443 nuclear power plants with hardly any insurance coverage whatsoever.

Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster, which will leave taxpayers there with a massive bill, highlights one of the industry's key weaknesses — that nuclear power is a viable source for cheap energy only if plants go uninsured. The plant's operator, Tepco, had no disaster insurance.

Governments that use nuclear energy are torn between the benefit of low-cost electricity and the risk of a nuclear catastrophe, which could total trillions of dollars and even bankrupt a country.

The bottom line is that it's a gamble: Governments are hoping to dodge a one-time disaster while they accumulate small gains over the long-term. Yet in financial terms, nuclear incidents can be so devastating that the cost of full insurance would be so high as to make nuclear energy more expensive than fossil fuels.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h6m6Z-A7ZI8TAPBRy35Dlp_z8oiA?docId=6274d45186a24d978d43b1dff293cea4

[truthisfreedom]

1. No nukes.

"Yet in financial terms, nuclear incidents can be so devastating that the cost of full insurance would be so high as to make nuclear energy more expensive than fossil fuels."

No nukes.

[truedelphi]

2. Reading some items about the Price Anderson act -

Each nuclar reactor is required to have on hand a full 300 million dollars worth of insurance, in the event of some major calamity.

And the Price Anderson Act sees to it that there is another fund with ten billion bucks available to those who may be injured or made homeless when a reactor melts down.

Those insurance funds are hardly a drop in the bucket, when you realize how expensive life and property is.

[damntexdem]

3. It's simple: don't go nuclear.

There can be no adequate insurance.

[truedelphi]

4. One more thing to add to that -

The whole reason that GE decided to pony up the tax monies it didn't initially pay was a need to establish a massive PR facelift.

GE needs the President to continue to orchestrate some 33 to 38 billions of dollars in loans to GE and other nuclear power interests in order to have the industry re-vitalized.

Why is it so important that the government loan them the money? Becuase NO ONE on Wall Street would or will touch nuke investmensts with a 150 foot pole.

[enough]

5. Know your Price-Anderson Act:

From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price%E2%80%93Anderson_Nuclear_Industries_Indemnity_Act

snip>

Power reactor licensees are required by the act to obtain the maximum amount of insurance against nuclear related incidents which is available in the insurance market (as of 2011, $375 million per plant). Any monetary claims that fall within this maximum amount are paid by the insurer(s). The Price-Anderson fund, which is financed by the reactor companies themselves, is then used to make up the difference. Each reactor company is obliged to contribute up to $111.9 million per reactor in the event of an accident with claims that exceed the $375 million insurance limit. As of 2011, the maximum amount of the fund is approximately $12.22 billion ($111.9m X 104 reactors) if all of the reactor companies were required to pay their full obligation to the fund. This fund is not paid into unless an accident occurs. However, fund administrators are required to have contingency plans in place to raise funds using loans to the fund, so that claimants may be paid as soon as possible. Actual payments by companies in the event of an accident are capped at $17.5 million per year until either a claim has been met, or their maximum individual liability (the $111.9 million maximum) has been reached. <2><3>

If a coverable incident occurs, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is required to submit a report on the cost of it to the courts and to Congress. If claims are likely to exceed the maximum Price-Anderson fund value, then the President is required to submit proposals to Congress. These proposals must detail the costs of the accident, recommend how funds should be raised, and detail plans for full and prompt compensation to those affected. Under the Act, the administrators of the fund have the right to further charge plants if it is needed. If Congress fails to provide for compensation, claims can be made under the Tucker Act (in which the government waives its sovereign immunity) for failure by the federal government to carry out its duty to compensate claimants.

snip>


Two things that stand out here:

1) The 12 billion dollar fund does not exist. It "is not paid into until an accident occurs."

2) Judging from paragraph two above, all decisions about who is going to pay and how are made by the President and Congress AFTER THE FACT of an accident. This does not give me much confidence that payments for damages will be conducted rationally or fairly.


The entire system looks like a sham, not a serious effort to deal with the reality of the potential problem.

[think]

6. Can we add this cost to the nuclear vs solar cost debate now

It might be fair to do so....

[felix_numinous]

7. Epic.

The clean safe energy is too risky to insure? Oh please get this on the front page.

[AndyTiedye]

8. They Can't Be Properly Insured Because they are TOO FUCKING DANGEROUS

We may not like insurance companies very much, but they DO understand risk.
The buying and selling of risk IS the insurance business.

The fact that they will not insure nukes for anywhere close to the actual liability
that would come from a significant accident should tell us something.

k/r of course