I just got off the air after doing two segments on the nationally syndicated Randi Rhodes Show, guest-hosted today by my pal Nicole Sandler of RadioOrNot.com. We discussed, as you may have guessed, the latest news (and politics) out of the continuing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, and the effect it may (or may not) have on the supposed “nuclear renaissance” previously scheduled here in the U.S.
In addition to summarizing some of the information from our latest detailed report on Fukushima last night, including the news we detailed about several independent scientists asserting that some 50% of the dangerous, radioactive cesium-137 emitted at Chernobyl twenty-five years ago has already leaked out of Fukushima, there are several new details breaking today. Some of them I mentioned quickly on the show. I will try to round up those, and several other new details, of course, in a new article here in a bit.
Until then, here’s the audio of me and Nicole on Randi’s show just now…
MP3 Download, or listen online below [appx 18 mins]…
[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/RandiRhodes_NicoleSandler_BradFriedman_Fukushima_032511.mp3]
I learned something from the show … taxpayers are the insurers of the nuclear power plants because regular insurance companies will not insure them.
Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act
But WAIT … there’s more!
The nuclear power industry is ALSO exempt from liability in the U.S. in case of an accident:
As I understand it, each individual company would only be responsible for $375 million, with the remainder of the $12 billion shared by the whole nuclear industry. The bill for any overages would go to the taxpayers.
It’s still far, far more responsible than the liability limits for oil companies and offshore drilling, which to date tops out at a laughable $75 million.
Thanks, GOP!
Des,
A caller, near the end of the program asked Brad about that law. Interesting law isn’t it?
That law reminds me that the age of bail outs is upon us. And I do mean us.
The nuke industry would pass anything they pay on to their customers as “a cost of doing business” instead of “a cost of being blatantly negligent”.
Bail outs are the removal of accountability.
Either way bail out mania is another enemy of the our foundations: “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” it would seem.
Bail out the wealthy with tax breaks, the banks, the corps (GE paid no taxes last year), the insurance AIG’s, and the BP’s of the world.
Meanwhile homelessness, dementia, poverty, and the divide between the oppressors and the oppressed grows.
The nuke insurance scam on the taxpayers is similar to the post-911 law Congress passed covering potential “terrorism-related” costs for airlines. In both cases, costs are being externalized onto the taxpayers. In a classic “free market” pricing scheme, those costs would be built into the price, which incidentally would tend to make “out of favor” industries (green energy or trains, for example) more feasible from an economic standpoint. Of course, the ultimate kick in the teeth is that while the Greedy Old Pigs (and their Dem enablers) are shoveling out cash commitments to various industries, health care for all is repeatedly shut down.