File photograph of Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and US President Barack Obama
Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's scheduled meeting with US President Barack Obama on Friday at Bali, India today notified rules on nuclear liability. The development is significant as nuclear liability has remained a key point of contention between the two nations over the civil nuclear cooperation deal signed in 2008.
The rules will establish how liability is determined in an accident as also determine nuclear commerce with foreign companies.
Government sources say that the liability rules will not fully satisfy US concerns. America has, so far, been unhappy with India's nuclear liability law which it contends is tough on suppliers of reactors. The most contentious part of the bill for Americans - Section 46 - has not been touched. In that, ordinary citizens have the right to sue suppliers for any amount and any time after an accident which could be even after several years - something that continues to be a major sticking point.
These concerns were outlined in July this year by visiting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who had stressed that "we need to resolve the issues that still remain."
In a bid to address some of the US' concerns, though, the rules have laid a cap of Rs 1,500 crore as damages that can be claimed by the operator of a reactor from the supplier if the equipment delivered was faulty.
The rules also set a time limit within which the operator can claim damages from the supplier, in this case, five years. This is a significant departure from the earlier clause in India's nuclear liability bill that made the suppliers of reactors liable for 80 years for any accident at a plant. Private companies were unwilling to sign up, mainly because they claimed inability to find insurance to cover them for potentially-crippling claims for damages.
This would, to a certain extent, address the Americans' worries that the Indian law was too open-ended on issues of time and amount but it wouldn't satisfy them entirely.
The issue is expected to come up when leaders of the two nations meet on Friday.