Consider the ridiculous trial settlements for trivial items that have been in the news the last few years.  A cagey lawyer could get a huge settlement on punitive damages alone.  Without Price-Anderson, the corporations involved are playing "you-bet-your-company."  The lack of something similar to Price-Anderson in China is retarding their nuclear power industry.  In the mean time, they just burn more coal.  Note that you can't get insurance for war or civil insurrection either.

It is worthwhile noting that the government has not paid out a single penny under Price-Anderson in its decades of existence.  The industry does maintain a very substantial amount of private insurance and regularly gets full refund of its premiums.

And the risk is not transferred to the locals but to the Federal government.  It is vaguely like our response to Katrina and the failure of the federally funded levees.  When a problem is too big, the larger society as a whole has to step in. The benefits of nuclear power to the US are manifold - lower pollution, reduced imports of oil, stable and low electricity prices, etc.  

It has been a darn good bet so far.