Quote:
Originally posted by Griff
tw, I'd appeciate any further clarity you can give to the subsidy issue. If we are going to create new public policy in the energy area (however much I loathe the idea) we need to at least know the price.
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I really don't know how much the public understands nuclear energy - or energy in general. Before there was a 3 Mile Island, there was reactor control lost in a breeder at Fermi 1 between Chicago and Detroit. For three days, they did not know if it was going to explode. The book is "We almost lost Detroit". Therefore I have known long ago that the insurance industry would never insure a nuclear power plant unless the federal government capped all claims. The famous report is " WASH(digits) " - the digits forgotten.
Lose a house to a nuclear accident and only get $1000 (I forget the actual numbers but the federal law on nuclear power restricts your ability to be reinburse outrageously). I have know this and other federal subsidizes to nuclear power (such as Yucca Flats) as routine. I always assumed every other reader also knew all this.
I assumed everyone knew that there had been many nuclear reactor explosions and other reactor loss of control before 3 Mile Island. Four nuclear reactors at full power in Brown's Ferry were almost totally lost when a candle created a fire - so that the reactors could not be shutdown. Again, everyone here knows this? To me, this is common knowledge for almost 20 years.