India Notifies Rules to Implement N-Liability Law

 

NEW DELHI (NNN-Bernama) -- Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with US President Barack Obama, India has notified the implementation rules for the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, Press Trust of India (PTI)

reported.

The rules, notified on Wednesday, give the nuclear plant operator the right to recourse for the period for which the supplier of equipment has taken liability for patent or latent defects or sub-standard services under a contract.

A "supplier" includes a person who manufactures and supplies either directly or through an agent a system, equipment or component or builds a structure on the basis of functional specification.

It also includes a person who provides to build to print or detailed design specifications to a vendor for manufacturing a system, equipment or component or building a structure and is responsible to the operator for design and quality assurance or provides quality assurance or design services.

The rules also make it clear that an operator's claim shall in no case exceed the actual amount of compensation paid by him up to the date of filing such claim.

The US has made it clear that India's civil nuclear liability law will have to be brought in conformity with international conventions and the current regime imposed a heavy burden on the operators of nuclear plants in India.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to meet Obama in Bali on Friday on the sidelines of the East Asia summit.

The rules said that the provision for right of recourse referred to in sub-rule (1) shall be for the duration of the initial license issued under the Atomic Energy (Radiation Protection) Rules, 2004 or the product liability period, whichever is longer.

The notification of rules the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, passed by Parliament in August last year, comes into force.

The rules ask the operator to take out an insurance policy or financial security or a combination of both in accordance with the law.

It states that the financial security shall be irrevocable and shall continue till the removal of all spent fuel from the spent fuel storage pool of the nuclear installation after removal thereof from the reactor core.

Shares or bonds or instruments constituting financial security shall be pledged to the central government and remain so pledged till the decommissioning of the plant.