The Government on Wednesday allayed fears of any dilution in India’s Nuclear liability Act, saying the law has not been amended and the onus of any damages due to nuclear radiation leak remains with the supplier.
Stating this in the lok Sabha, Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space Jitendra Singh maintained that safety standards in India’s nuclear plants were as good as anywhere in the world and in fact, “more than many other countries”. “Overall, there is no amendment in the Act. The onus is still on the suppliers,” Singh said during the Question Hour.
The concerns were raised as the US firms were opposed to those aspects of the Nuclear liability Act which hold the operator liable for any nuclear incident. Following the recent talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama, both sides had claimed a “breakthrough” over the nuclear impasse.
Replying to the concerns expressed by some members over radioactivity in nuclear plants and other safety-related issue including those concerned with local population in case of any incident, Singh said the Government has enough evidence to prove that radioactivity emitted in plants is “negligible”. The workers inside the Indian Nuclear plants have not been affected at all, leave aside those living outside it, he said.
Noting that India has adopted a closed fuel cycle where the spent fuel is regarded as a resource material and none of it is disposed of, the Minister said all the spent fuel is reprocessed to recover useful fissile and fertile materials to recycle back in the reactor as a fuel.
Stating that these “useful fission products have societal applications”, Singh said these products, “separated from waste for their use in irradiators, have various applications in healthcare, agriculture and industry.”