India Nuclear Liability Bill Passed By Lower House
Written by NucNet
Thursday, 26 August 2010
India’s lower house of parliament (the Lok Sabha) yesterday voted in favour of passing a nuclear liability law that will open the 150-billion-US-dollar (USD) Indian nuclear energy market to foreign companies.
The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Bill was adopted by the House after it rejected a proposed amendment by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party that sought to fix the liability cap on operators in case of accidents at about USD 2 billion instead of the USD 325 million proposed in the measure.
The law, which has been the subject of fierce wrangling between the government and opposition, is part of a 2008 atomic energy pact with the US that granted India access to foreign nuclear technology.
It passed with a clause included that allows nuclear power plant operators to seek recourse from equipment or raw material suppliers for 80 years after a plant’s construction.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the lower house that the new law would end a three-decade “nuclear apartheid” that had prevented India from buying reactors and nuclear fuel from abroad.
The legislation will now head to the upper house, where it is expected to pass and become law once the president has signed it.
India had been denied access to civilian atomic technology and fuel since 1974 due to its nuclear weapons programme and refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Its isolation ended two years ago when former US president George Bush and Mr Singh signed the atomic bill, granting India special rights to import civilian nuclear technology on condition it submit to inspections.
India expects nuclear power to supply 25 percent of its electricity by 2050. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, India has 19 reactor units in commercial operation and four under construction.
Since the lifting of the nuclear trade embargo, India has signed civil nuclear cooperation agreements with the US, Russia, France, the UK, Canada, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Namibia.
