Friends of the Earth

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Friends of the Earth is one of the most effective environmental groups in the world today. Although FOE publishes its own journal—a monthly tabloid called Not Man Apart —far too few of MOTHER's readers regularly see a copy of NMA . . . which is why we've agreed to publish this column, written by the FOE/NMA staff.

COURT VOIDS NUCLEAR INSURANCE

In a strongly worded opinion delivered on March 31 in a Charlotte, North Carolina courtroom, U.S. Federal District Judge James B. McMillan ruled that the provision of the Price-Anderson Act which limits the liability of nuclear power plants violates the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fifth Amendment. The judge—in effect—declared the 1957 Price-Anderson Act (which provides the financial underpinning for the entire nuclear industry) unconstitutional.

The case in question— CarolinaEnvironmental Study Group et al v. U.S. Nuclear Power Commission— was brought in 1973 by two consumer groups and 36 citizens against the NPC and Duke Power Company. The suit challenged two nuclear power stations being built by Duke near Charlotte: one twin-1,000-megawatt unit (the Catawba station) on South Carolina's Lake Wylie, and another twin-1,000-mw plant (the McGuire station) on North Carolina's Lake Norman.

The issues before the court involved the standing of the plaintiffs to sue, whether the issue was ripe for a decision, the constitutional points in question, and the likelihood and possible consequences of a major nuclear accident.

The judge found that the plaintiffs had standing to sue, since they suffered both immediate and potential damage from the operation of the plants. The immediate damages include the low-level radiation releases from the plants, the thermal pollution of the two lakes involved, the threat to property values, and "present fear and apprehension" regarding the radioactivity released in normal operations and from potential accidents.

The issue was ripe, Judge McMillan ruled, because a real possibility existed that the plaintiffs would suffer damages that exceeded the ability of the Price-Anderson Act to provide compensation. "The court finds as a fact," the judge said, "that the probability of a major nuclear accident producing damages exceeding the $560 million limit of the PriceAnderson Act is not fanciful but real."

The judge was unequivocal in his ruling. "The act violates the Due Process clause because it allows the destruction of the property or lives of those affected by nuclear catastrophe without reasonable certainty that the victims will be justly compensated." In addition, the act violates the Equal Protection provision of the Fifth Amendment, said Judge McMillan, "because it provides for what Congress deemed to be a benefit for the whole society, but places the cost of that benefit on an arbitrarily chosen segment of society: those injured by nuclear catastrophe."

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