Australia shirks nuclear insurance issue

As the danger of nuclear accidents increase in the wake of the break-up of the former Soviet bloc, unsafe practices in many Third World countries and the ageing of reactors in all nuclear power states, the Australian government is planning to withdraw from the international Standing Committee on Nuclear Liability, because of budgetary considerations, it says.

Greenpeace nuclear coordinator Jean McSorley has appealed to the federal government not to withdraw, as the committee is considering important changes to international laws and regulations, particularly on insurance and compensation for radioactive contamination of people and property.

The Australian withdrawal could in fact be due to pressure from the nuclear industry, which is very nervous about proposals to force nuclear producers to take out adequate insurance. “Given the costs of a major nuclear accident, we are not surprised the nuclear industry is baulking at the thought of having to properly insure”, says McSorley. Chernobyl cost US$300 billion to the Soviet Union. Damage done as a result of the widespread contamination in western Europe has never been compensated.

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