The post-World War II Atoms for Peace Program failed to convince the electrical utilities to invest in nuclear power.

Insurance companies would only cover $250 million of potential damages from an accident. The government bought 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 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 more than 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.

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. No more nukes.

John E. Gibson,

Blooming Prairie