On November 27, the US House voted to reauthorize the Price-Anderson Act (H.R. 2983)-- major energy legislation crucial to the future of nuclear power. The Act provides a $3.4 billion annual insurance subsidy to the nuclear power industry, an industry that should be able to hold its own in a supposed free-market economy. The bill now heads to the Senate, where it may be attached to another bill as an amendment at any time, or may be voted on as its own bill.

The Price-Anderson Act limits the nuclear power industry's liability in the case of an accident. No other industry enjoys this unprecedented federal protection from liability. Price-Anderson caps the commercial nuclear power industry's liability at $9.1 billion and requires that reactor operators carry only $200 million in primary private insurance for each reactor. Price-Anderson would only provide pennies-on the-dollar in public compensation for damages stemming from a potential nuclear reactor accident, which Sandia National Laboratory Estimates could exceed $500 billion dollars.

Price-Anderson is set to expire on Aug 1, 2002, although reactors licensed to operate before this date (including reactors that subsequently apply for relicensing) will continue to be covered under the provisions of the existing law, whether or not it is reauthorized. The only incentive for voting to extend Price Anderson coverage is for a NEW generation of inherently unsafe reactors such as the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) which are designed and can only function without a containment building. Even Vice-President Cheney admits that without Price-Anderson there would likely be no new nuclear reactors in the US because of liability concerns.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has recognized that the containment structures housing the currently operating nuclear reactors are not designed to withstand an attack of the scale witnessed at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Control rooms, spent nuclear fuel pools and dry cask spent fuel storage areas at U.S. reactors, which contain more radioactivity than the reactor core itself, are located outside of the containment structure, presenting an even more vulnerable target. Despite these threats, H.R. 2983 contains specific provisions intended to facilitate the construction of the PBMRs, a design that features no protective containment structure.

Contact your Senators (202-224-3121) and urge them to OPPOSE Price-Anderson reauthorization

and to OPPOSE any effort to attach energy legislation (which also includes oil drilling in ANWR) on any unrelated bill. You should also ask your Democratic Senators to OPPOSE including any form of Price-Anderson reauthorization in any version of an energy bill.

Peak refers to the highest calculated values from the NRC’s report entitled "Calculation of Reactor Accident Consequences for U.S. Nuclear Power Plants," (CRAC-2). However, "peak" does not mean the worst case scenario. This is due to uncertainties in the meteorological modeling that have been acknowledged by the authors of the report.

Early Fatalities are deaths that result from radiation exposure occurring within the first year.

Early Injuries are radiation-related injuries occurring within one year of the accident which require hospitalization or other medical attention. Early injuries include conditions such as sterility, thyroid nodules, and cataracts.

Cancer deaths are predicted to occur over the lifetime of the population exposed to the radioactive release (except leukemia, which is assumed to have occurred within the first 30 years following the accident).

Cost includes estimates of lost wages, relocation expenses, decontamination costs, lost property and the cost of interdiction for property and farmland. Cost not included are healthcare, litigation, and indirect costs of health affects.

In the wake of the 1986 accident at Chernobyl, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission was asked to testify before Congress concerning the potential for a severe accident in the U.S. According to NRC Commissioner James K. Asselstine:

"…given the present level of safety being achieved by the operating nuclear power plants in this country, we can expect to see a core meltdown accident within the next twenty years…

…there are accident sequences for U.S. plants…which would result in the off-site release of fission products comparable or worse than the releases estimated by the NRC staff to have taken place during the Chernobyl accident.

That is why the Commission told Congress recently that it could not rule out commercial nuclear power plant accident in the United States resulting in tens of billions of dollars of property losses and injuries to the public."