House Rejects Full Liability by Nuclear Industry

The House on Wednesday rejected, 300 to 119, a proposal to require the nuclear power industry to shoulder unlimited liability for damages caused by a catastrophic accident, then neared passage of a compromise measure that would increase the current $700-million liability ceiling to $7 billion.

The defeat of the amendment by Rep. Dennis E. Eckart (D-Ohio) signaled strong support for the complex compromise package crafted over two years by Reps. Morris K. Udall (D-Ariz.), Philip R. Sharp (D-Ind.) and three committees.

A final House vote was expected today; a Senate version has yet to reach the floor.

The bill would renew the Price-Anderson Act, which for 30 years has required the nuclear industry to assume sole responsibility for damages caused by a major release of radiation or other serious accident, in exchange for capping the industry’s financial vulnerability for any single event.

The no-fault system accords the public the advantage of expedited payments, rather than resorting to tort actions in the courts.

The current law expires Saturday.

Eckart and others cited General Accounting Office estimates that an accident similar to the Chernobyl explosion and fire in the Soviet Union last year could cost upwards of $15 billion in the United States--perhaps many times that amount if bad weather applied.