Udall Urges More Nuclear Damage Funds

The nation must “keep the nuclear option open,” but the nuclear power industry should pay far more for an insurance fund to be used in case of a major accident, House Interior Committee Chairman Morris K. Udall (D-Ariz.) said Wednesday.

Udall, addressing a meeting with the Nuclear Power Assembly, an industry group, said current federal law limiting damage payments to $650 million should be vastly expanded to provide a damage fund of $8 billion. He rejected an industry proposal of $2 billion as “clearly inadequate.”

Other influential members of Congress told a meeting of the Nuclear Power Assembly that widespread public concern about the Chernobyl reactor accident in the Soviet Union could delay passage of bills to promote a standard reactor design and to speed the granting of government operating licenses.

Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) warned that the Chernobyl accident will be “seized upon” by opponents who want to “shut the industry down.” The critics of nuclear power will go into a “slabbering catatonic dance,” said Simpson, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works nuclear regulation subcommittee, adding that the industry “cannot afford to be complacent in any way.”

Public Scrutiny

But in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, Rep. Philip R. Sharp (D-Ind.) said, if nuclear power officials tell the public “‘don’t worry about it, leave it to us,’ that’s not salable.” He said that “nuclear power is safer in our society because it has been forced into the public eye, into public scrutiny.”

The Chernobyl accident may focus new attention on the Price-Anderson Act, the legislation that limits damage payments by the commercial nuclear power industry to victims of an accident. Under that law--which expires next year--the total amount that can be paid as compensation in a single accident is limited to $650 million, regardless of how much damage it causes.

Without the protection of the law, any newly operating nuclear power plants would be subject to unlimited damage claims.

The Interior Committee voted tentatively last month, 21 to 20, to extend the Price-Anderson Act for 10 years and raise its limit to $8 billion. Udall said an industry proposal for a $2-billion ceiling “does little more than adjust and update the 1957 law for inflation.”

Action Not Conclusive

The nuclear industry has been working hard in opposition to the committee’s proposal, which is expected to face a second vote late this month or in June. But, even then, the issue will not be settled conclusively because other House committees can claim jurisdiction over the issue before it goes to the House floor for a final vote.

The $8-billion compensation fund sought by Udall’s committee would be amassed after an accident through annual payments for eight years from each nuclear power plant.

Sen. Robert T. Stafford (R-Vt.), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, has introduced a bill that would provide unlimited liability in the event of a nuclear accident--a proposal favored by a number of environmental groups. That committee will consider the bill, although the Senate Energy Committee already has approved legislation with a $2-billion ceiling.

Must ‘Take Responsibility’

“We need to assure full compensation,” said Keiki Kehoe, of the Environmental Policy Institute, a private organization. If the nuclear power industry “really wants the American public to believe their claims about safety, they have to take responsibility for accidents,” she said.

Industry executives told a news conference at Wednesday’s meeting that their faith in the efficacy and necessity for nuclear power was unshaken by the news from Chernobyl, where a burning reactor core and meltdown of fuel poured out radiation for days.

“Chernobyl has not changed the world’s need for nuclear energy,” said Keith L. Turley, chairman and chief executive of the Arizona Public Service Co.