Abstract
Nuclear energy development and the laws relating to liability and compensation have had an eventful history, which continues even today. Historically, nuclear energy development was initiated as a military programme, and once the war ended, efforts were made to use this energy source for civilian applications. Today, world over, institutions have been established to control and propagate the use of civilian nuclear energy in line with internationally accepted rules. Over the years, however, the memory of atomic bombings in Japan, accident at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and recently as Fukushima has left the public with a deep suspicion of the civilian use of nuclear energy. Laws relating to liability and compensation in case of accident became the foundation to take the program forward. In order to create a universal liability regime, regional Paris Convention and international Vienna Convention formed the template. Many countries followed these conventions based on geographies with varying degrees of adherence, while several countries remained outside the regime. It appears that even after many decades of the Chernobyl transboundary nuclear accident and the recent Fukushima accident, a universal regime is far from being realised.
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Notes
- 1.
A third party is anyone other than the nuclear operator itself and other than a supplier of goods, services or technology for use in connection with a nuclear installation. A third party may be inside or outside the nuclear installation and as such the term includes employees of the operator of the nuclear installation at which an accident occurs (Schwartz 2006).
- 2.
International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) is a tool informing the magnitude of a disaster. The accidents are classified from level ‘0’–‘7’. Level ‘0’ has no safety significance. Level ‘7’ is classified as a major accident. Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents are of level 7. Other levels of classification are, ‘1’-anomaly; ‘2’-incident; ‘3’-serious incident; ‘4’-accident with local consequences; ‘5’-accident with wider consequences; ‘6’-serious accident. Basically, levels 1–3 are incidents and levels 4–7 are accidents (IAEA 2012).
- 3.
The US alleged that the fumes from the operation of Canadian Smelter Company caused pollution (nuisance) to Washington State. The tribunal that was set up to try the case concluded that Canada was responsible for transboundary pollution and owed damages to US.
- 4.
Two British destroyers struck mines in Corfu Strait in Albanian waters and suffered damage, including serious loss of life. UK filed an application against Albania in ICJ seeking the Albanian Government to take responsibility and also pay compensation. Albania contented that the UK had violated Albanian territorial waters. ICJ found that Albania was responsible for the explosions and for the resulting damage and loss of human life suffered by the United Kingdom. The Court also found merits with Albania that minesweeping by UK had violated its sovereignty. ICJ ordered Albania to pay the United Kingdom.
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Ram Mohan, M.P. (2015). The Development of Institutions and Liability Laws Relating to Nuclear Energy. In: Nuclear Energy and Liability in South Asia. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2343-6_2
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