Economic foundations of limited liability for nuclear reactor accidents

The Price-Anderson Act places private financial protection requirements higher than those of any country to ensure that government indemnification will be a last resort. The studies in this volume suggest that, given the presence of nuclear risk, a limitation on liability is the key to maintaining world-wide insurance capacity on a large scale to meet both physical and property claims. The economist finds no paradox in the risk assessments implicit in Price-Anderson, and has no problem with limiting private liability if society is willing to accept the risk. The author concludes that there is no way to rely on social institutions such as free markets or tort law to make the decisions which society must make for itself. 16 references