International Seminar Helps Resolve Nuclear Liability
And Insurance Issues In Russia
An international Seminar on
Nuclear Liability and Insurance Issues was held in Moscow from 15 to
17 April, 1997 to assess the potential benefits that the Russian Federation
would derive by joining the system of international nuclear liability
conventions, adapting its relevant legislation and setting up appropriate
nuclear insurance structures. Organized under the joint sponsorship
of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the Gosatomnadzor (the Russian
nuclear regulatory agency), the Seminar brought together senior-level
representatives from the Russian Ministries of Atomic Energy, Finance
and Foreign Affairs and other governmental Agencies, as well as officials
from a number of OECD countries and from international organisations
such as the IAEA and the European Commission. Also participating in
the Seminar were specialists from both the Russian and Western nuclear
and insurance industries.
The Seminar focused on the international
principles of nuclear liability law and their incorporation into Russian
legislation, the systems and methods by which Russian insurance companies
may provide coverage against the risk of damage arising from a nuclear
incident and the financial aspects of assessing nuclear risk and providing
such insurance coverage. An important objective of the Seminar was the
discussion of the creation in the near future of a national Nuclear
Insurance Pool.
The resolution of these issues is
also considered essential to the efforts by OECD countries to provide
nuclear safety assistance to Russia. The international principles of
nuclear liability law, which provide for the strict and limited liability
of the operator of a nuclear installation in the event of a nuclear
incident, the channeling of all such liability exclusively to that operator,
and the necessity of having adequate insurance or other form of financial
security to support liability claims, are embodied in two international
conventions on civil nuclear liability, the Paris and Vienna Conventions.
Although Russia signed the Vienna Convention on 8 May 1996, it has not
yet ratified it, nor incorporated the principles of that Convention
into its national legislation.
The Seminar provided a unique opportunity
for the Russian participants to thoroughly examine the methods for the
evaluation and control of nuclear damage, the requirements for establishing
a Russian Nuclear Insurance Pool and for obtaining re-insurance coverage
from the Western nuclear insurance industry, and, finally, the ways
in which particular insurance coverage might be obtained for exceptional
situations, such as emergencies.
A frank exchange of views took place
on all of these issues and thus the objective of the Seminar to serve
as a forum to promote a better understanding of Russian nuclear liability
and insurance issues among all parties concerned was achieved.
