It is also true, though, that even before the regulatory tightening in the 1970s, no one was willing to insure a nuclear plant against accidents. In the Price-Anderson Act of 1957, Congress basically made the industry free from liability in case of accidents and said that the U.S. government would cover the costs of any incident, up to some cap (currently about 9 billion). Without that immunity -- unique in the energy sector -- it would be very difficult to build a nuclear plant even if the state PUCs were on your side, due to the tremendous expense or outright unavailability of private-sector insurance coverage.
Likewise, the government has taken on responsibility for waste disposal, which would also be a big headache for nuclear plant owners if they had to take care of it themselves (again, including paying for insurance against any accidents).
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Price-Anderson Act (no liability)
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