The Price-Anderson Act establishes the legal framework within which a privately-funded liability pool is established to provide protection against losses on a no-fault basis. No taxpayer dollars are involved. Private companies (utilities, etc.) pay into the pool and fund it. A private company writes the policies.
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Price-Anderson establishes liability limits, but all insurance policies have liability limits. There is a provision for the government guaranteeing losses that exceed the liability pool limit (currently something like $10 billion), but along with that there is provision for Congress to pass legislation that raises the liability for plant owners/operators, with the intent that losses above the liability pool would be ultimately subrogated to the industry. And, between you and me, given the political climate, I have a feeling that if such legislation were required, it would be passed in record time by the Congress.
Thanks for the detail on it, but there is still a govt guarantee on top of the pool to make it work.
And how many billions of taxpayer dollars went into Yucca Mountain, which is a huge support to the industry?
I very much support Yucca Mountain and rapid development of nuke plants, btw. Just saying people ought not get up in arms that the PTC credit for wind energy is some huge pork check, or something way out of proportion compared to govt support in other areas of the energy industry.