House votes for nuclear subsidy

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2001 | 9:10 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The House on Tuesday voted to renew an insurance plan for nuclear power plants that requires taxpayers to pay part of the tab for a costly catastrophic accident.

Nevada lawmakers have opposed the controversial measure. The Senate has not acted on the bill.

The legislation establishes a liability plan that pools the resources of the nation's 103 nuclear power plants. If one plant has an accident, it would pay about $200 million, and the other plants would chip in about $88 million each, eventually piling up roughly $9.5 billion.

But if costs exceed $9.5 billion in a Chernobyl-like disaster, taxpayers would pay the difference. Nuclear plants depend on the plan because private insurance companies will not insure nuclear plants.

A worst-case accident could cost an estimated $300 billion, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., argued Tuesday, although no nuclear accident has ever cost that much in America. The insurance plan paid out about $187 million after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979.

The legislation, commonly called the Price-Anderson Act, was enacted in 1957 and has been renewed by Congress three times. The act will expire in August 2002 if not renewed again.

If Price-Anderson lapses next year, the insurance plan would still protect existing plants, but it would not cover new plants.

That's why renewal of Price-Anderson is vital to the renaissance of nuclear power in America, advocates say. Nuclear power plants have not been built since the 1970s in part due to public opposition, but industry officials say it is time to construct new plants.

"This bill paves the way for a new generation of smaller, safer nuclear power plants," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the energy subcommittee that launched the bill.

Critics of the plan say it is an unfair government subsidy of the nuclear power industry. Berkley called it "highway robbery."

Nevada lawmakers also oppose the act in part because more nuclear power plants translate to more nuclear waste. Nevada's Yucca Mountain is the proposed site of the nation's first high-level nuclear waste burial ground.

"Price-Anderson not only subsidizes the production of nuclear energy, it also subsidizes the production of nuclear waste," Berkley said.

In other action Tuesday, the House by voice vote approved a bill authorizing President Bush to give educational and health care assistance to women and children in Afghanistan.

Berkley led debate for Democrats in favor of the Afghan Women and Children Relief Act of 2001.

Women under Taliban rule were marginalized and rendered helpless as their children went hungry and were not given access to education, Berkley said.

"Women were made invisible," Berkley said. "They became non-people."

The bill authorizes Bush to use some of the $40 billion approved by Congress shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks to pay for efforts to recover and respond to the attacks.

"Now is our time in history to speak out," Berkley said. "Now is our time in history to make a difference."

Berkley joined a handful of other women House members who argued for the bill.

The congressional women have a key ally: Laura Bush, who on Nov. 17 in the first presidential radio address given solely by a first lady, said the war is a fight for the rights and dignity of Afghan women and children.