Bill Stems Nuclear Liability Meltdown
By Michelle Logsdon - November 13, 2001High insurance costs are nothing new to nuclear power plant operators but protecting themselves against a terrorist attack was never part of the equation. Now an industry used to "risky business" is in need of some refuge from what could be impossible-to-pay liability claims.
The government is trying to help. In a coincidental twist of fate, a long-standing bill that limits the liability of the nuclear industry in the event of a nuclear accident or disaster is due to expire in August of 2002. The US House Energy and Commerce Committee, Oct. 31, orally approved extending the bill, officially named the Price-Anderson Act, with even more safeguards because of the recent threat of terrorist attacks.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) believes "…the Price-Anderson Act is in the best interests of DOE, its contractors, its subcontractors and suppliers, and the public," according to a 1998 DOE report to Congress.
The act requires each utility to purchase the most coverage available from private industry insurers—$200 million per reactor. It also caps the total amount of damages payable by the nuclear industry for one nuclear accident at $9.43 billion. The government would pay any outstanding costs.
California is home to two of the country’s 103 nuclear-power complexes. Diablo Canyon is located in San Luis Obispo County and San Onofre sits in the Southern end of the state near San Clemente.
Bill Roake, news representative for Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E)—Diablo Canyon told adjustercom.com, "From a PG&E standpoint, we support the extension. It makes sense."
Detractors of the Price-Anderson Act, such as the environmental group Green Scissors, believe $9.4 billion in insurance money wouldn’t begin to cover the "human health and property damages that could result from a nuclear accident."
Yet the nuclear industry would be hard-pressed to find affordable insurance coverage through the private market under normal circumstances, let alone in this time of questionable national security.
The Times of London reported in late October, according to LA Weekly, that the FBI believed the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania Sept. 11 was actually headed for Three-Mile Island. Immediately following the attacks, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) put all nuclear power plants on level 3 (the highest) security alert and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) banned private airplanes from flying within 12 miles of most nuclear facilities. That ban was removed Nov. 6.
The bill also requires the NRC to review its security procedures for nuclear power plants—a move the NRC has already begun
"When it comes to security, we’ve taken steps in the right direction since Sept. 11," said Roake. "We’ve had NRC come do an inspection of our security force. It came out well."
Diablo Canyon now has California Highway Patrol officers at its gate, visitors are limited, and barricades have been installed in areas where none existed before. "We are one of the most hardened targets in the utilities and possibly the US," said Roake.
The upgraded security measures will probably remain in place at Diablo Canyon indefinitely said Roake. Still the threat remains, and the nuclear industry is paying for it in more ways than one. If the indemnification is extended, the government will continue to share in the liability of a nuclear accident whether it is a reactor core meltdown or a terrorist attack. | 
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