nuclear-news

Insurmountable problem of nuclear power’s financial risks

the insurance industry and financial markets still have not altered their long held position that nuclear power poses unacceptable financial risk. 

‘Smart money’ reflects nuclear power risks  Burlington Free Press David R. Abbott, 8 may 11,  Is nuclear power safe? Not surprisingly, the owner of Vermont Yankee is spending heavily in an effort to convince us that it is. Perhaps, instead, we should follow the smart, disinterested money in attempting to answer that essential question because, in the case of the nuclear power industry, an unacceptable financial risk is, at the same time, an unacceptable safety risk.

The smart money here is represented by the insurance industry and the financial markets. Each is constantly engaged in risk assessment. Each has spoken in its own way to say, without equivocation and over time, that nuclear power represents unacceptable financial risk.
At the dawn of the nuclear power age, the financial markets were not willing to invest in nuclear power without protection by the insurance industry. The insurance industry, in turn, declined to insure nuclear power plants against the enormous losses that a major event would cause to the plant and to its surrounding region. In 1957, the federal government stepped in to break this impasse by way of the Nuclear Industry Indemnification Act (Price-Anderson). The act placed by far the greater part of the financial risk of nuclear power squarely on the shoulders of the unwitting American taxpayer. The “private” nuclear power industry was born.The act was intended to get the nuclear power industry on its private feet within a decade. A series of five extensions of the act since then, currently through the year 2025, bear witness to the fact that the insurance industry and financial markets still have not altered their long held position that nuclear power poses unacceptable financial risk. If the nuclear power industry disputes this statement, let it call for the repeal of Price-Anderson and attempt to operate existing plants and build the next generation of nuclear power plants without that tax payer protection. I will not hold my breath waiting for that call.

Price-Anderson privatizes profit while socializing risk as did the bank bailouts of the past several years. Unlike the bank bailouts, however, the stakes in this case include the loss of human health, life and habitat on a massive scale. Nuclear power poses unacceptable safety risks. We need to follow the smart money to this undeniable conclusion…..

My Turn: ‘Smart money’ reflects nuclear power risks | Burlington Free Press | burlingtonfreepress.com

May 9, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs, USA