Reply #29: Can you point out where it shows that the coverage is actually paid by the plants owners?

[cui bono]

Here is what I see...

Power reactor licensees are required by the act to obtain the maximum amount of insurance against nuclear related incidents which is available in the insurance market (as of 2011, $375 million per plant). Any monetary claims that fall within this maximum amount are paid by the insurer(s). The Price-Anderson fund, which is financed by the reactor companies themselves, is then used to make up the difference. Each reactor company is obliged to contribute up to $111.9 million per reactor in the event of an accident with claims that exceed the $375 million insurance limit. As of 2011, the maximum amount of the fund is approximately $12.22 billion ($111.9m X 104 reactors) if all of the reactor companies were required to pay their full obligation to the fund. This fund is not paid into unless an accident occurs. However, fund administrators are required to have contingency plans in place to raise funds using loans to the fund, so that claimants may be paid as soon as possible. Actual payments by companies in the event of an accident are capped at $17.5 million per year until either a claim has been met, or their maximum individual liability (the $111.9 million maximum) has been reached.

Who are the "licensees"? When I license software for my use, I am the licensee, not the software owner/manufacturer. So it seems that the government is the licensee. In which case the government is taking out the insurance.

Reactor companies don't pay until claims exceed the $375mn insurance limit, insurance that it seems is paid for by taxpayers.

And the reactor companies don't have to pay into the Price-Anderson fund until an accident occurs and even then, only $17.5mn/year. That's not going to cover a catastrophe.

So I do not think your statement is correct.



Also stated later in the criticisms:

The free government-granted insurance given to for-profit nuclear plant operators in the Price-Anderson Act....

And:

Price-Anderson has been criticized by many of these groups due to a portion of the Act that indemnifies Department of Energy and private contractors from nuclear incidents even in cases of gross negligence and willful misconduct (although criminal penalties would still apply). "No other government agency provides this level of taxpayer indemnification to non-government personnel".