India’s parliament passed a new liability law last year. The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010 determines how the liability for an accident would be apportioned among equipment suppliers and vendors under the provisions of the nuclear liability law. But many suppliers find it lacking. Equipment makers, including India’s Bharat Heavy Electricals and France’s Areva, have made it clear that dealing with the state owned Nuclear Power Corp, which operates Indian reactors, would be challenging if the present conditions were not tweaked.
Nuclear Power Corporation (NPCIL), the country’s only permitted entity to generate such energy, is worried that after a mishap it will be difficult to fix responsibility of vendors. “It’s not a turnkey contract. A nuclear project is a complex mix of 2,000 industries,” company chairman and managing director SK Jain told the Economic Times. “The question is who will be sued. The damage can be due to failure of components, poor upkeep or not using original spare parts or deploying technical people,” Jain said.
What this means:
Since both the customer (NPCIL) and suppliers from India and overseas are proposing a change in the conditions of the law, it is only a matter of time that some accomodation should be made
