“The Price Anderson Suicide Pact” (Devanny on nuclear power insurance reform)
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 26, 2024
“Let’s be clear. Nuclear power’s Secondary Financial Protection is not insurance. Insurance is a voluntary agreement among the parties in which all or a portion of a risk is transferred from one party to another in return for a payment, which is set by the participants, ideally in a competitive market. The SFP is a government mandated protection racket.” (Devanny, below)
“The only solution is a fixed compensation scheme with each plant being responsible for its own liability insurance. If a compensation scheme, based only on the dose profile each individual and business would have incurred assuming no evacuation, is combined with a radiation-harm model that recognizes our bodies’ ability to repair radiation damage within limits, the risk will be easily insurable.” (Devanny, below)
The notorious Price-Anderson Act, enacted in 1957 as part of a federal effort to get peaceful atoms into commercial use, has been extended seven times and is set to expire on its own terms next year (end of 2025). Last week’s post by Kennedy Maize described the latest federal subsidies to keep nuclear afloat as a forward-looking industry.
https://www.masterresource.org/nuclear-power/the-price-anderson-suicide-pact/