The United States has welcomed India’s ratification of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC), thus clearing the decks for implementation of the landmark India-US civil nuclear deal and participation of American firms in building nuclear reactors in India.
“Indian membership in the CSC marks another important step towards creating the global nuclear liability regime called for by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) Nuclear Safety Action Plan,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday.
The Indian action of joining CSC will “also facilitate participation by companies from the United States in the construction of nuclear reactors in India,” Kirby said, pointing out that this will mean more reliable electricity and reduction of India’s reliance on carbon-intensive sources, thus benefiting the environment.
“We believe it’s an important step toward creating a global nuclear liability regime and it’ll facilitate international cooperation in expanding the use of nuclear power in India,” he said, without directly answering a question on whether the Indian action will help implementation of the civil nuclear deal that was concluded in 2008.
The deal has largely remained stalled with the American nuclear firms opposing India’s tough 2010 nuclear liability law holding a plant supplier liable for damages in the event of an accident.
US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz termed India’s membership of CSC “a crucial step toward facilitating the growth of safe, civilian nuclear energy in the world’s second most populous country”.
Additionally, it is a major step towards the global liability regime called for by the IAEA’s Nuclear Safety Action Plan to provide prompt compensation in the event of an accident and to establish a legal framework for commercial arrangements, he said.
The United States, Moniz said in a statement, looks forward to India’s deployment of civil nuclear energy technologies to help provide reliable, low-cost power to millions of Indians, adding: “We are eager to work with India, and all CSC member countries, to facilitate the use of advanced nuclear technologies developed in the United States.”
Westinghouse Electric, a unit of Toshiba Corp, has been engaged in negotiations with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India limited (NPCIl) amid expectations that a deal to build six nuclear reactors may be in the offing over the next month or two.
Signifying the conclusion of India’s moves on CSC, India on Thursday deposited its instrument of ratification to the IAEA in Vienna.
“We were eager to complete the process at the earliest, and today, with India joining the CSC, we are contributing to strengthening an international convention and global nuclear liability regime,” India’s Permanent Representative of India to the IAEA Rajiva Misra said after delivering the instrument of ratification to IAEA Deputy Director General Juan Carlos lentijo, who congratulated India on behalf of the IAEA Director General on joining the convention.
The CSC, which was adopted in September 1997 and entered into force on April 15, 2015, aims at “increasing the amount of compensation available in the event of a nuclear incident through public funds to be made available by the Contracting Parties on the basis of their installed nuclear capacity and UN rate of assessment”, an IAEA release said.
“It also aims at establishing treaty relations among States that belong to the Vienna Convention on Civil liability for Nuclear Damage, the Paris Convention on Third Party liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy or neither of them, while leaving intact the 1988 Joint Protocol that establishes treaty relations among States that belong to the Vienna Convention or the Paris Convention,” the release noted.