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Reform of civil nuclear liability. International symposium Budapest, Hungary 31 May – 3 June 1999 (2000)

AuteurNEA
Datumdecember 2000
Classificatie 6.01.0.30/27 (AANSPRAKELIJKHEID/VERZEKERINGEN/WETGEVING)
Voorkant

Uit de publicatie:

FOREWORD

In taking the initiative to organise this Symposium, the objectives of the OECD 
Nuclear Energy Agency were threefold. First to evaluate the work which concluded 
in 1997 with the amendment of the Vienna Convention and the adoption of the 
Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, at the outset of 
the current negotiations on the revision of the Paris Convention; furthermore to 
examine the evolution of national legislation on third party liability in Eastern 
Europe and in various other countries which have not yet adhered to the 
international conventions; and finally to serve as a forum to bring together 
governmental experts, representatives of the nuclear industry, insurers and 
academics, with a view to comparing their opinions.

One could have expected that the countries concerned would voice their legitimate 
satisfaction in having successfully concluded, after many years of negotiations, the 
difficult task of revising the Vienna Convention and creating a mechanism to provide 
supplementary compensation for nuclear damage on a global scale. However, the 
papers presented during this Symposium offer a comprehensive and non-complacent 
description of the international third party liability regime which resulted from 
this exercise. They also express those expectations which should be taken into 
account on a European scale by the national authorities currently participating 
in the revision of the Paris and Brussels Conventions.

The criticism directed towards this regime is abundant, reflecting the diversity of 
participants at this Symposium. Some of this criticism is old. What is new, however, 
is that the critical comments concern principles which, until now, were considered 
to be the cornerstones of this regime. This is the case, for example, in respect of 
the channelling of the nuclear operator's liability.

It is, nevertheless, the problem of justifying the limitation of this liability - 
in particular the liability amount itself - which has been at the forefront of many 
concerns vis-à-vis this regime, which not even the substantial increase in the 
amounts established in the revised Vienna Convention or the possibilities made 
available by the new Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear 
Damage have been able to dispel. The comparison between the amounts available 
in the United States in the case of a serious nuclear accident and the funds which 
could be mobilised in other countries with electro-nuclear programmes, especially 
in Europe, generated much of this criticism, not least from the representatives of 
"non-nuclear" countries.

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