TAKE ACTION BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE

                                TAKE ACTION BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.

Nuclear accidents are recognized as part of the nuclear package. They are a threat to our health, well-being and even our survival as a world. Many people would like to see nuclear power plants dismantled, shut down, phased out. Especially since the spent fuel has no place to be safely stored.

But, nuclear is here in the United States and elsewhere because it has very high financial returns. Perhaps not for the taxpayers and utility users. But for the owners of the plants. The San Onofre plant online information states that the plant generates electricity for 1.4 million average homes. If this average home had a $100 monthly electric bill that would be almost 1.7 billion dollars of revenue per year! Of course there are costs to run a plant, but investors want a return on their money or they wouldn't be doing it.

So now that there are problems with the plants, the safety, the aging of the structures, the fact that they are not earthquake proof, there are calls to shut them down. But this is a free society and how are you going to get them shut down? Not enough people signed the nuclear initiative in California to get it on the ballot. It was a fear driven negative campaign that energy rates would go up and we wouldn't have enough energy. So far, with San Onofre shut down, nothing has happened. No blackouts, no anything different.

There is an avenue open to the voting people of the United States to rid ourselves of the nuclear problem. And that is make them “financially unfeasible”. This method may or may not apply to other countries, depending on their ways of governing throughout the world.

If we have to keep these plants, at least there should be some motivation to make them safer (the “owners” are probably a protected entity with limited liability such as a corporation or LLC – and they certainly don't live near a plant! So why should they spend what could be profits to install proper updated equipment?) Therefore nuclear plants MUST HAVE UNLIMITED LIABILITY  FOR THEIR ACCIDENTS.

Right now, insurance policies do not cover nuclear damage to homes or automobiles. This is specifically excluded. If your home, car, or personal possessions were damaged by a radiation release you are not covered by much of anything. (If you don't understand the risks to your home and property from a radiation release – please read my fiction novel – The Nuclear Catastrophe – a novel of suspense that has a family involved in a worst case scenario). There is a government Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that could help if the President declared a disaster area and perhaps would provide a small loan or monetary assistance. But in a large disaster don't count on the government. That's why nuclear plants MUST HAVE UNLIMITED LIABILITY FOR THEIR ACCIDENTS. If they want the big dollar returns they must take the big dollar risks with complete liability, extending to outside the corporation to all shareholders, owners, etc., with PERSONAL LIABILITY.

Banks call for personal liability on risky loans. They often require it for construction loans, for small business loans, anything they consider risky. And certainly nuclear has been proven to be risky. So.... nuclear plants MUST HAVE UNLIMITED LIABILITY FOR THEIR ACCIDENTS.

If the voting public is unwilling to sign petitions to get nuclear plants shut down out of fear of cost increases for their utilities, they are gambling their life and their health for lower costs. But at the very least they can get it on the ballot of each and every state that: nuclear plants MUST HAVE UNLIMITED LIABILITY FOR THEIR ACCIDENTS.

The following chart from Wikipedia compiles costs of different kinds of electricity from different studies. Yellow represents costs of nuclear energy production. Who is paying for this? YOU ARE.

It's time for nuclear energy to pay up - They MUST HAVE UNLIMITED LIABILITY FOR THEIR ACCIDENTS.