June 17, 2011 San Francisco, California
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke at the Commonwealth Club before the S.F. premiering of the coal film “The Last Mountain“. Here he responds to a question on nuclear power.
Partial Excerpts:
“There’s not a single utility in this country that will build a nuclear power plant today unless 100% of the construction costs are paid for by the federal taxpayer. Why is that? And then at the end of the life cycle of the plant, we have to store their waste for 30,000 years which is five times the length of recorded human history. What kind of subsidy is that? What kind of deficit spending is that to dump on our children.?”
“…If you’re safe, then get an insurance policy and compete in the free market. You know they can’t get an insurance policy. The insurance industry won’t write them a policy because they’re too risky to insure. And if they had to write them a policy it would be so expensive they couldn’t compete in the marketplace”
“…In a capitalist society, the insurance industry is the final arbiter of risk. You go home and look at your homeowner’s policy. Every homeowner’s insurance policy in this country has a provision in it which says, this policy does not insure you against radiation contamination caused by a nuclear power plant. So you are now insuring yourself against their mistakes. No other industry gets that gift. That is a huge subsidy.”
See also Video: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Clean & Green vs. Dirty Energy
Report by James George