Nuclear liability hot potato - India

[kristopher]

Liability clause threatens nuclear power programme
Sarita C Singh, ET Bureau Jul 15, 2011, 03.08am IST

NEW DELHI: The country's ambitious nuclear programme may grind to a halt because of uncertainty over how the liability for an accident would be apportioned among equipment suppliers and vendors under the provisions of the nuclear liability law, top companies said.

Equipment makers, including Bharat Heavy Electricals and France's Areva, have made it clear that dealing with Nuclear Power Corp, which operates Indian reactors, would be impossible if the present conditions were not tweaked.*

Nuclear Power Corp, the country's only permitted entity to generate such energy, is worried that after a mishap it will be difficult to fix responsibility of vendors. "It's not a turnkey contract. A nuclear project is a complex mix of 2,000 industries/u]<," company chairman and managing director SK Jain told ET. "[u>The question is who will be sued. The damage can be due to failure of components, poor upkeep or not using original spare parts or deploying technical people," Jain said.

...The civil liability for nuclear damage law, passed by Parliament last year, allows operator of a plant to seek damages from equipment supplier in case of a mishap. The Act has fixed operator's liability limit at 1,500 crore per event**. India aims to generate 20,000-mw from nuclear projects by 2020 from the present 4560-mw...

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-07-15/news/29777896_1_nuclear-liability-law-nuclear-power-corp-equipment-suppliers


* The law caps the operator liability and shifts the liability for an "event" away from the operator either onto the government or by going after component vendors. So in this instance "tweaked" means shifting liability from the vendor onto the backs of the public.

**1500 crore = $336,900,000 today

[AndyTiedye]

1. Those Who Understand Risk for a Living (Insurance Companies) Don't Want Anything to do With Nukes

:nuke: :hide:

[kristopher]

2. And per the OP that group who understand risk includes those selling it.

Note that Areva etal are not willing to be subject to liability for the product they are selling.