India resists U.S. pushback on nuclear liability

After initially trying to dilute the nuclear liability law at the draft stage to accommodate the concerns of American suppliers, the Manmohan Singh government has told the United States that the Act, as passed by Parliament, is final and that no changes in any of its provisions are possible. In particular, the Indian side insists that any rules the government might frame to guide the Act's implementation cannot override its provisions, including Section 17, which gives Indian operators a ‘right of recourse' against nuclear suppliers in the event of an accident caused by defective equipment. No voluntary surrender Indian officials also insist that operators will not be able to “voluntarily surrender” their rights under 17 in any commercial contract signed with foreign reactor suppliers, as allowed, for example, by the nuclear law of South Korea. “As far as we are concerned, our law is fully compatible with the CSC, and there is no question of us blinking,” a senior Indian official told The Hindu. But the IAEA's Office of Legal Affairs apparently did tell the Indian side that lawyers from General Electric and other U.S. nuclear suppliers had told them that the Indian Act was “incompatible” with the CSC.