Price-Anderson Act

Price-Anderson provides for the process of resolving liability claims in response to an accident at a commercial nuclear power plant. The act creates two tiers of liability coverage. The first tier requires commercial nuclear power plant owners to obtain enough private insurance to cover liability claims up to $375 million. If claims exceed the tier one amount, then each commercial nuclear reactor in the country must pay a prorated share of the remaining cost of the claims, up to $12.6 billion. If the liability claims total more than the $12.99 billion in coverage, as is possible in the event of a catastrophic nuclear accident, Congress would likely appropriate the additional funds. This relieves nuclear operators of the need to cover the liability of their plants completely.