Civil N-Liability Act text has problems: Kakodkar

Hailing India signing the Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC) by India, former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Anil Kakodkar on Wednesday said the text of Indian Civil Nuclear Liability Act itself has some problems.

Hailing India signing the Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC) by India, former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Anil Kakodkar on Wednesday said the text of Indian Civil Nuclear Liability Act itself has some problems.

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"It is a good thing India signed the CSC. However, the text of Civil Nuclear Liability Act itself has some problems," Kakodkar told PTI on the sidelines of A D Schroff Memorial Lecture on "Towards our safe and secure Energy Future" organised by the Forum of Free Enterprise.

"One of the purposes of joining CSC is to get contribution - to get the coverage beyond the national limit (cap) when there is trans-national implications of a nuclear accident," he said.

"If we do not have a national limit, there is no question of getting any benefit from the CSC," he said.

On the Right of Recourse in the event of nuclear accidents on which a lot of noise was made by the foreign suppliers, Kakodkar said "it is the Indian suppliers who will be the manufacturers for the foreign nuclear industry and are going to be hurt more."

"Most of the value addition and supply of equipment of the foreign nuclear industry will be done by the Indian manufactures," he said.

According to the Act, the total Indian government liability is USD 300 million (Rs 2200 crore)of which Rs 1500 crore will be on the operator (Nuclear Power Corporation of India) and the remaining Rs 700 crore will be taken care of by the Centre with public funds.