Setting the Stage for International Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facilities International Workshop Proceedings (2008) / Chapter Skim
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3 Status of Liability and Insurance Laws for International Shipments of Spent Nuclear Fuel--Norbert Pelzer
3 Status of Liability and Insurance Laws for International Shipments of Spent Nuclear Fuel--Norbert Pelzer
Pages 11-20
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From page 11... ...
International shipments of spent fuel, therefore, pose problems to carriers and operators. But they also create problems for potential victims of nuclear incidents during transport.
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From page 12... ...
Such an agreement would certainly be the ideal situation, but since we do not live in an ideal world, we have to see what reality is offering us. There are international nuclear liability conventions that also apply to international shipments of spent nuclear fuel, and these conventions contain all the elements enumerated above.
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From page 13... ...
Among those states are the United States, Canada, China, Japan, India, South Korea, and South Africa. Many of the states not party to the conventions nevertheless enacted nuclear liability legislation that in substance follows more or less the principles of the international nuclear liability conventions. Consequently, there are three groups of states: • States party to the international nuclear liability conventions • States having enacted national nuclear liability legislation without being party to any of the conventions • States without any specific nuclear liability legislation There are 20 million shipments of radioactive materials transported annually.
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From page 14... ...
As a general rule, it is not the carrier that is held liable for a nuclear incident but rather the sending or receiving operator of a nuclear installation. The carrier can only be held liable in exceptional cases and following a special procedure: Provided the installation state has enacted relevant legislation, a carrier of nuclear material may, at his request and with the consent of the operator concerned, be designated or recognized as the operator with respect to such nuclear material.
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From page 15... ...
A consequence of this structure is that material that is sent to a person who is not an operator in the sense of the convention, for example, a professor at a university or a research laboratory, the sending operator remains liable for damage caused by that material. Deficiencies of the International Regime As long as the transportation takes place only between or among contracting parties of the same convention, there is no problem in determining the competent court and applicable law.
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From page 16... ...
Obviously, if there were universal adherence to this instrument, or at least adherence of the main players in the shipment of spent nuclear fuel, this convention would create treaty relations among the parties to the VC, the PC, and the so-called annex states with their domestic nuclear liability legislation (Article XIV CSC) and thus would provide legal harmonization among the participants.
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From page 17... ...
There are some 50 states in the world that are parties to the nuclear liability conventions, and even among them there is no satisfactory harmonization of the liability regime. International Shipments Outside the Regime of the International Nuclear Liability Conventions General Sources of the Law of Conflict In case of shipments among or to and from states not party to any of the nuclear liability conventions, senders, consignees, and carriers have to deal with the question of the relevant court and the applicable law on the basis of the general rules of private international law.
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From page 18... ...
If the respective country has enacted special nuclear liability legislation, the principles of that legislation will mostly be similar to the law of the international nuclear liability conventions. This applies, for example, to Canada, Japan, and South Korea.
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From page 19... ...
It also shows that operators and carriers face complex problems if a nuclear incident occurs during the course of a shipment. If the nuclear incident and the damage suffered occur within the territorial scope of application of one of the three international nuclear liability conventions, the law of that convention, as implemented by the respective contracting party, applies (Box 1)
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From page 20... ...
definitionem need international shipments of spent fuel. It is, therefore, one of the essential prerequisites of the operation of an international repository for spent fuel that the state in the territory of which the repository is operated and all those states that are planning to use the repository are contracting parties to the same international nuclear liability convention.
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