You may have heard that the US was seeking immunity from prosecution for its soldiers in Iraq in order to keep them there. The Iraqi government refused to give the US military "blanket immunity" from prosecution for crimes, and therefore the US is pulling out its troops. You can find it easily on the web, here is one link.
Likewise Wall street banks like City Group are seeking "blanket immunity" from prosecution by state attorneys general in their attempts to settle their fraud cases without admitting guilt. You can find this easily on the web too, such as here.
Why nuclear envy? They only want what the nuclear industry already has, blanket immunity from prosecution. The Price-Anderson Act, a "temporary" bill, first passed in 1957, gives the nuclear industry a liability limit of $12.6 billion dollars, and blanket immunity from prosecution for any damage over that. Do I have to mention that damages from the two major nuclear accidents exceed $200 billion, or that the US nuclear industry's own study predicted $750 billion in damages from a major accident?
There are two elements to this immunity. First is the limit of financial liability. Anything over $12.6 billion will be paid by the taxpayers. I call this the bailout in advance (see previous articles here). The second element, which is true blanket immunity, is that any citizen who feels they suffered harm from a nuclear accident is prohibited by law from suing for recovery of damages.
This immunity thing is getting popular worldwide as Yemeni dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh just received judicial immunity in return for stepping down from power. Must be nice to receive a "get-out-of-jail-free" card after you just slaughtered and tortured hundreds of your citizens. Did I mention that Bush and Blair were just found guilty of Nuremburg War Crimes by a tribunal in Malaysia. See link. Immunity, impunity, same thing. But I digress.
The military and Wall Street are suffering from nuclear envy. They only want what the nuclear industry already has, a risk transfer from them to the public, imposed by the federal government on states and localities. It's only fair.