The nuclear liability bill needs a rethink
While British Petroleum is facing a bill of up to $34 billion (about Rs 170,000 crore) from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster after US senators demanded the oil company deposited $20 billion (about Rs 100,000 crore) into a ring fenced account to meet escalating compensation costs, the way Indian legislators are agreeing to a Rs 1,500 crore cap on nuclear disaster from large nuclear power plants, Rs 300 crore cap for institutions involved in reprocessing fuel anda Rs 100 crore cap for small research reactors is unacceptable and condemnable.
Srikumar Banerjee, chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and ex officio secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, one of the drafters of the bill is guilty of ignoring the consequences of possible nuclear disaster because his canada goose outlet canada text has privatised profits and made liabilities public.
uk canada goose outlet Prime Minister Mamohan Singh who is in charge of canada goose factory outlet DAE, appears to be official canada goose outlet guilty of dereliction of duty as well. The report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science Technology, Environment Forests chaired by T Subbirami Reddy reveals their culpability quite categorically. This report was tabled in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha on August 18. What else can explain canada goose outlet parka their indifference towards other concerned ministries like health, agriculture, labour, water resources etc. Aren’t they relevant? What can explain the lack of consensus among the committee members even in matters of national interest? uk canada goose outlet
Canada Goose online India’s Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010 is meant to pave the way for India to sign International Atomic Energy Agency’s Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, 1997. The question that stares citizens in the face is: whether or not the proposed liability bill and the pre existing IAEA’s compensation treaty in the supreme interest of present and future canada goose outlet black friday generation of Indians? Canada Goose online
If India decides to join the CSC, it will be an exercise in surrendering its sovereignty to a conflict of interest ridden regime like IAEA which is both the promoter and regulator of nuclear commerce. Like IAEA, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board is dependent on the Department of Atomic Energy whose mandate is charged with promoting nuclear power in India.
The parliamentary committee inquired from Nirupama Rao, the foreign secretary „whether there are other considerations apart from the legal requirements that necessitated the bill.” She informed that „since the government is operating within the ambit of international agreements and on the basis of certain principles the nation should have provisions of the nuclear liability bill.”
This further corroborated by two members of the parliamentary standing committee namely, Saman Pathak and Barun Mukherji. Both have observed categorically that the provisions of the bill will unduly favour the foreign suppliers of nuclear equipment and it is being done to make the provisions compatible with the CSC. Like all Indians, both these members are not convinced with the rationale of India joining the CSC because this legislation on civil nuclear liability does not ‘keep the interests of the Indian people, who may be affected in a nuclear accident, as its core concern’.
In its 25 page report on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science Technology, Environment Forests observes, „When the committee inquired from the secretaries of ministries/departments of government of India who appeared before the committee as to whether the draft nuclear liability bill was referred to them for their views/comments, some of them viz. ministries of health family welfare, canada goose outlet toronto factory agriculture, labour employment, food public distribution, etc. replied in the negative. The committee is of the opinion that government must have sought the opinion of ministries which are even distantly related to any provision of the legislation. The committee, therefore, recommends that in future the government should consult all such ministries/departments which are even remotely canada goose outlet nyc concerned with the provisions of a proposed legislation.”
It is noteworthy that the 25 member working group on civil nuclear energy 2009 constituted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry under the chairmanship of Dr S K Jain, canada goose outlet jackets chairman and managing director, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, came canada goose outlet in usa out with a 57 canada goose outlet uk page report with the format of the proposed Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill.
Dr Jain was present during the testimony of the experts and citizens to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science Technology, Environment Forests. The government of India has an ambitious target „to increase our installed capacity more than seven fold to 35,000 MWe by the year 2022, and to 60,000 MWe by 2032.” Established in pre independent India in 1927, FICCI is the largest and oldest apex business organisation of the country. It claims to be a „non government, not for profit organisation”.
canada goose uk black friday FICCI has direct membership from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 83,000 companies from regional chambers of commerce. canada goose uk black friday
canada goose store As part of its corporate lobbying, „FICCI works closely with the government on policy issues, enhancing efficiency, competitiveness and expanding business opportunities for industry through a range of specialised services and global linkages. It also provides a platform for sector specific consensus building and networking.” In such conflict of interest ridden circumstances, Dr Jain claimed that the health hazards from Chernobyl nuclear disaster is no more visible. Therefore, he implied that the questions of intergenerational adverse effects do not arise. Are his claims factual and trustworthy? canada goose store
Canada Goose Online Under the influence of FICCI and US nuclear industry, those pushing for the bill have chosen not learn from the mistakes of US firms who embarked on a nuclear power strategy under the assumption that the radioactive waste management problem was not difficult and would be solved relatively quickly. Subsequent events have proved otherwise because radioactive waste management efforts are quite different from industrial and municipal waste management. Canada Goose Online
Canada Goose Outlet The observations of G K Pillai, secretary, home ministry illustrate how the committee has not been rigorous in the drafting of the bill. While commenting on the conditions in which the operator of a nuclear power plant, who could be made liable for nuclear damage, Pillai stated that the bill contains such terms as armed conflict, hostilities, civil war, insurrection or an act of terrorism that have wide meanings but have not been defined in the present bill. Therefore there is a need for inserting meanings of these terms from other laws, in Section 2 of this bill. Such vagueness in connotations can make the operators negligent in observing security procedures and can create situations of disputes between the operator and the central government. Canada Goose Outlet
cheap canada goose uk It is frightening to know that any nuclear incident may induce radioactive contaminations in surface, ground water bodies, and other water resources. U N Panjiar, the secretary, water resources was of the opinion that the ministry does not have any facility for testing water quality, from point of view of nuclear contamination because this work has been done by the DAE. The efficiency of the DAE gets routinely revealed in issues ranging from radioactive steel, ship breaking industry, Mayapuri scrap market, Kaiga incident etc. Didn’t AERB reveal its incompetence when it declared Mayapuri scrap market radiation free when it was proven later that the radiation still existed in the area? Didn’t it do canada goose outlet store the same after inspecting the obsolete ship Blue Lady? cheap canada goose uk
canada goose black friday sale While secretary, canada goose outlet reviews DAE responded by saying that the ministry of water resources canada goose outlet new york city has not been involved in checking and monitoring the quality of water because this job is done by the environmental survey laboratories of the DAE, the fact remains the bill should have been sent to the water resources ministry as well because the DAE deals with point source of radioactive pollution and not with non point source of pollution. canada goose black friday sale
It is saddening that the ministry of water resources conceded that since expertise is available in DAE alone, the ministry need not be consulted. Panjiar rightly stressed upon the need to study the impact of nuclear contaminated water on human beings, animals, plants and crops. The bill does not make any provision for such canada goose outlet sale efforts.
canada goose In such a context it is germane to recollect that more than 51 years ago, on May 28, 1959, the World Health Organisation’s assembly voted into force an agreement with the IAEA, a UN agency that prevented the WHO from investigating, warning and revealing the dangers of nuclear radiation on health. canada goose
Canada Goose sale Coincidentally, K Sujata Rao, secretary, ministry of health while deposing before the parliamentary committee mentioned that „while drafting the bill the DAE did not consult them. Since the response system to deal with any kind of emergency of such type, the hospitals are not well equipped, it is natural that mortality and morbidity due to multiple burn, blasts, radiation injuries and psycho social impact could be on very high scale and medical tackling of such a large emergency could have enough repercussions in the nearby areas of radioactive fallout. She also mentioned that in the entire bill, there is not a single clause which speaks about taking health care during radiological emergencies. It reflects only about payment of compensation due to health impacts of such radiation. Canada Goose sale
She suggested while setting up nuclear plants consideration may also be given to the fact that there should be a hospital having trained doctors near such establishments and arrangements should also be made for free treatment of people who are affected by serious nuclear fallout.” She confessed that her ministry is nowhere to meet an eventuality that may arise out of nuclear and canada goose outlet radiological emergencies.
buy canada goose jacket The objectives of the health ministry and the DAE are at loggerheads in the same way as objectives of WHO and IAEA are. The former is dedicated to promoting health and the latter exists to promote nuclear commerce. Under the agreement, the two UN agencies must „keep each other fully informed concerning all projected activities and all programs of work which may be of interest to both parties”. buy canada goose jacket
canada goose clearance Notably, the probe into canada goose outlet the health impacts of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine on goose outlet canada in April 1986 was taken over by IAEA and dissenting voices were suppressed. The health effects of the nuclear accident were the subject of two major conferences, in Geneva in 1995, and in Kiev, Ukraine in 2001. The full proceedings of those conferences remain unpublished. The Kiev conference was organised by WHO Association of Physicians of Chernobyl in co operation with UN agencies. There is no evidence to suggest that our DAE or the parliamentary standing committee accessed the documents of these conferences and drew lessons from it. canada goose clearance
IAEA’s International Conference on Chernobyl in Vienna, canada goose outlet shop September, 2005 was a public relations exercise by the nuclear industry that promoted such risk models for nuclear radiation that understated the true hazards. Chris Busby, the scientific secretary of European Committee on Radiation Risk and visiting professor at the University of Ulster’s school of biomedical sciences observes, „The subordination of the WHO to IAEA is a key part of the systematic falsification of nuclear risk which has been under way ever since Hiroshima, the agreement creates an unacceptable conflict of interest in which the UN organisation concerned with promoting our health has been made subservient to those canada goose outlet store uk whose main interest is the expansion of nuclear power. Dissolving the WHO IAEA agreement is a necessary first step to restoring the WHO’s independence to research the true health impacts of ionising radiation https://www.canadagoose-jackets-online.com and publish its findings.”
Disregarding lessons from 26 years of the Bhopal disaster, even in the 24th anniversary year of the Chernobyl disaster the WHO IAEA agreement canada goose outlet uk sale is yet to be abandoned. ECRR has called for its abandonment. India too should call for freeing WHO from hiding facts about health canada goose outlet online effect from nuclear hazards due to the agreement.
Amidst a public relations blitzkrieg of nuclear companies, it is not surprising that Banerjee, secretary, DAE expressed his touching faith in the nuclear power companies of all ilk and informed the parliamentary committee that the „Reactor at Chernobyl did not have a containment, while old reactors in India have containments and, canada goose black friday sale therefore, Chernobyl type canada goose outlet online uk incident can never take place in India.”
canada goose uk shop Is it because of such divine belief in the nuclear technology that he was starkly negligent in choosing not to consult revenant ministries while drafting the bill? Is it for this very reason that doctrine of ‘absolute liability’ for the operator, supplier, builder and owner has been subverted? Business enterprises are „strictly and absolutely liable to compensate all those who are affected by the accident and such liability is not subject to any of the exceptions which operate vis vis the tortuous principle of strict liability,” as per Supreme Court’s order. The liability of the operator should be made „absolute” to ensure that there are no exceptions. canada goose uk shop
uk canada goose The bill ignores the fact that Union Carbide Corporation was also in the business of nuclear power and its current owner Dow Chemicals Company (since February 6, 2001) too offers a range of nuclear grade resins that are designed and manufactured to meet the requirements of the nuclear power industry. uk canada goose
Canada Goose Jackets Reddy, Singh and Banerjee should have recommended more openness, increased public access to information so that no agency hides problems to be solved by the future generations. The current draft of the bill is doing so. Canada Goose Jackets
canada goose uk outlet This is illustrated by what Alka Sirohi, secretary, department of food and public distribution informed the parliamentary committee, while explaining the functioning of her ministry, she emphasised the ill effects of nuclear radiation on food items and its subsequent repercussions on human health and safeguards to be taken to prevent nuclear contamination of food during radiological accidents canada goose uk outlet.