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India’s new Nuclear Liability Bill upsetting ambitions of USA’s nuclear salesmen

Flawed’ liability bill threatens Indo-US nuclear deal: Expert, The Times of India Sep 1, 2010, WASHINGTON: Terming passing of the civil nuclear liability bill by the Parliament as “flawed”, an eminent American expert on South Asian affairs has said the US policy makers and industrial leaders have been taken off guard by this and it threatens to cast a pall over the historic Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.

With time running fast for the November visit of the US President Barack Obama to India, Lisa Curtis, from the Heritage Foundation, in the first reaction to the bill coming from the US academics which were a key supporter of the nuclear deal called for fixing the flaws in the existing bill.

“With India’s legislative clock running down and US President Barack Obama’s visit to India set for November, Washington had hoped the Indian government would pass crucial legislation establishing an internationally compliant civil nuclear liability regime that would facilitate US investment in India’s nuclear industry,” Curtis wrote……..
The law includes language that makes suppliers of equipment, raw materials, and services liable–beyond the recourse already available through the courts–for 80 years after the construction of a plant in the unlikely event of a nuclear accident, Curtis said.

September 1, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear technology, reactors