nuclear-news

It’s OK, America, – in an Indian nuclear disaster, the supplier won’t be liable

Nuclear reactor supplier cannot be held for damages, says NPCIL Chairman, The Hindu, M. RAMESH CHENNAI, JUNE 1: The point whether the equipment supplier is liable for damages or not if something goes wrong in a nuclear power plant and results in a disaster has been a subject of intense debate in India.

Would it be the power plant operator, Nuclear Power Corporation of India or the equipment (reactor) supplier like GE or Westinghouse, who should pay up?

In an interview to Business Line, Mr S.K. Jain, Chairman and Managing Director, Nuclear Power Corporation of India, who incidentally relinquished his position on Thursday after serving the corporation as CMD for eight long years, explains why it equipment supplier cannot be held liable to pay.

It may be surprising that somebody should say “it is me, and not him, who is liable to pay”, but Mr Jain says that the reactor supplier cannot legally be held responsible….. Mr Jain said that the supplier will be liable for any ‘malafide defect’ in the design.

But what about non-malafide defect? Mr Jain said that even if there was something wrong with the ‘containment’, “six or seven more things would have to go wrong” for a disaster to occur, which are all “outside the control of the supplier”.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/article3479426.ece?homepage=true

June 1, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | India, Legal