The Russians Want Zero Nuclear Liability Too

Kudankulam clouds PM’s Moscow visit

Russian envoy to India Alexander M Kadakin told a news conference here last week that Moscow would expect that the NPCIL and JSC Atomstroyexport to strike a  deal for the third and fourth reactors at Kudankulum under the same terms and conditions as the ones applicable to the first and second. 

Moscow pointed it out to New Delhi that India had no legal regime for nuclear liability, when the intergovernmental agreement was signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and Rajiv Gandhi in 1988 or when the JSC Atomstroyexport and NPCIL clinched the deal for the first two reactors in 2002.

Looks slightly more justified than prospective zero-liability.

100% Safe Nuclear Reactors

A perfectly valid argument:

If the Koodankulam plant is completely safe as Dr. Kalam puts it, it would be useful to see Dr. Kalam convincing the insurance companies to provide blanket cover to nuclear power plants, and convincing the nuclear equipment suppliers to abandon their insistence on a nuclear liability protocol that exempts them from compensating in the event of a disaster, even if it is caused by a willful fault on their part.

He should do that or else shut up.

Update:  The UPA govt tries to tweak thinks a bit: Why the Nuclear Liability Rules need to be modified – Analysis – DNA.

Update2:  In the West, a new urgency in storage of nuclear waste:

Jennex said that in the US, and to some extent around the world, “our reactors are getting pretty full, in terms of what they can store on site.”

So what happens when they get full? 

Safe Nuclear Power?

A former defense missile scientist takes on some myths: Nuclear power: Myths about low cost, safety and emission.