Nuclear industry reprieved over environmental liability

By Maria Kielmas

Date: 15/01/04

THE EU nuclear energy industry is relieved, for now. An amendment to the Environmental Liability Directive sponsored by Socialist MEPs, which would have included the nuclear sector within its scope, failed to achieve a qualified majority at its second reading last month.

If this amendment had been passed, nuclear operators feared they would face unlimited liability for accidents.

The vote coincided with a revision of the Paris Convention on Third Party Nuclear Liability and the Brussels Convention. Adopted in the 1960s, under the aegis of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), they set compensation levels for victims of nuclear accidents. The result of the revision has been to remove previous caps on liability of 15 million "Special Drawing Rights" (a unit set by International Monetary Fund which is equivalent to around €1.27, ie a total of €19m) to a minimum of €700 million. National governments can set higher liabilities.

Twelve of the 15 signatories to the Paris Convention are EU members. Austria, Ireland and Luxembourg are not parties to the accord, but its revision extends the scope for compensation to states that are not contracting parties but which suffer damage.

Julia Schwartz, of the legal affairs department of the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency, says the European deal compares favourably with its US equivalent, the Price Anderson Act, which caps liabilities at just under US$9 billion (€7bn).

This increase in compensation as a result of the revision of the conventions was why Labour MEP Bill Miller, vice-chairman of the legal affairs committee, did not support a broad coalition of Socialist, Green and Liberal MEPs who wanted to bring the nuclear industry under the Environmental Liability Directive. Green deputy Nuala Ahern said the vote was an example of how "Brussels is endemically pro-nuclear".

But the nuclear industry has been excluded from the Environmental Liability Directive for only five years, says the directive's rapporteur Toine Manders. During this period the sector will have to find a way of compensating for environmental, human and commercial damage from nuclear accidents.

In the meantime, the European Commission will carry out an analysis which could result in potential liabilities faced by nuclear operators rising sharply in the future. Norbert Peltzer, honorary chairman of the International Nuclear Law Association, believes that "laws in future will do away with liability limitations", adding that Sweden and Finland are already examining ways of doing this. The revision of the Paris and Brussels conventions requires assent from the Council of Ministers and Parliament before member states can ratify the changes because the EU as an entity is not a contracting party.

No date has yet been set for a Parliamentary debate. Julia Schwartz admits that the ratification process could take years, though a signing ceremony for the revised conventions has been set for 12 February.

Socialist deputy Karin Scheele thinks that the directive's December second reading finalized the nuclear sector's exclusion from the directive. Bill Miller also thinks MEPs will vote for the amended conventions. "Where else do you put nuclear liability," he asks.

In human rights courts, is the answer from central Europe. The Czech Republic, home of the controversial Temelin nuclear power plant, bans public participation in the nuclear debate and obliges power company employees to support nuclear energy. Over-capacity and safety problems are not discussed, says Radko Pavlovec, commissioner for nuclear installations in the Upper Austrian government and a former Czech dissident.

Opposition groups in Southern Bohemia, where the Czech government wants to built a nuclear waste depository, have already filed three lawsuits against this at the European Court of Human Rights. In five years, nuclear energy could face a different world.

Maria Kielmas is a freelance journalist specializing in the energy sector.

The European Parliament voted on 15 December 2003 against an amendment to the Environmental Liability Directive which would have included the nuclear energy sector within its remit. Nuclear operators feared that if the amendment had been passed, they could face unlimited liability for accidents.