OCR Text |
Show Atomic Insurance Now in Force The first federal Atomic Insurance In-surance Act has been signed into law by President Eisenhower. The law, anticipating growth of private nuclear power, provides pro-vides up to half a billion dollars of government insurance against damages from accidents in privately pri-vately operated atomic power plants. Need for legislation, the congressional con-gressional atomic energy committee com-mittee said, stemmed from refusal re-fusal of private companies to risk underwriting 50 to 65 million mil-lion dollars worth of insurance for each plant. The committee said fear of a major accident, no matter how remote the possibility, was a major reason for the hesitancy of private companies to enter the nuclear power field. ; The legislatoin authorizes the government to assume liability for damages in excess of insurance insur-ance coverage available from private companies. Plant operators would pay premiums based on power capacity. ca-pacity. Fees will be collected on an established basis of $30 per year per 1,000 kilowatts of thermal energy capacity of the plants. The minimum fee would be $100 a year. The Atomic Energy Commission Commis-sion told Congress that there has never been an accident causing personal injury or significant leakage of radioactivity in any industrial reactor in the United States or Great Britain. The commission estimated chances of accidental death at one in 50 million. mil-lion. Besides providing insurance coverage the law also makes the commission's committee on reactor re-actor safeguards a regular statutory statu-tory body and requires that its reports be made public. |