George Monbiot calls for nuclear power to be insured.

Wahey. George Monbiot has agreed to join the call for nuclear power to be insured.

He set up a nuclear debate today on the Guardian's Comment is Free site.
Huge response, as you would expect. I asked if he would join the call for nukes to be insured, and he said yes.

Gerry Wolff's excellent Energy Fair site has a link to a study on insurance of nukes. At present they are insured to about 1% or less of a maximum credible accident.  If they were to be fully insured, it would put the cost of nuclear electricity up by a factor of about 17.  In short, unaffordable.

Ironic, isn't it, that with the interminable debate, technical and moral, over nuclear power, it should be money that settles it? It was privatisation that killed nukes under Thatcher, and insurance costs will kill nuclear power post Fukushima.