nuclear-news

USA’s nuclear salesmen in a turmoil over India’s Nuclear Liability Bill

The US India Business Council, representing 300 top US companies doing business with India, wanted India to adopt a nuclear liability regime “channelling absolute and exclusive liability to nuclear power plant operators, [not to the USA nuclear reactor suppliers]

US fears Indian nuclear liability law may deter foreign suppliers – The Economic Times, 7 Sept 10, WASHINGTON: The passage of a nuclear liability bill by Parliament making suppliers of nuclear equipment also potentially liable threatens to cast a long shadow over India’s plans to open an estimated $150 billion nuclear market to foreign companies.
US officials are unwilling to comment publicly on the limiting liability legislation, a key piece under US law for the implementation of the landmark India-US civil nuclear deal, but American firms hoping to supply equipment to India are less than happy about the language.

The US India Business Council, representing 300 top US companies doing business with India, wanted India to adopt a nuclear liability regime “channelling absolute and exclusive liability to nuclear power plant operators and establishing a sole remedy for compensation of claims”…..
Ashley Tellis, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who was closely involved in negotiating the nuclear deal, fears the legislation will be “a significant deterrent not only to US business but, equally importantly, to Indian and other international private business as well.”

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said it is ironic that after the Bush administration “expended enormous political and diplomatic capital to exempt India from US non-proliferation laws and [Nuclear Suppliers Group] guidelines. the new Indian law may effectively deny US nuclear supply firms access to the Indian market, which was a chief selling point for the deal.”….

US fears Indian nuclear liability law may deter foreign suppliers – The Economic Times

September 8, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, India | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, reactors