Six Decades of Nuclear Accidents, Nuclear Compensation, and Issues of Radioactive Waste Management

Thailand has made a serious aim to employ nuclear power by adopting five 1,000 MWt in the 2010 national Power Development Plan (PDP 2010) with the first NPP coming online in 2020. However, after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011, the National Energy Policy Committee had made the resolution to postpone the plan by 3 years. The post-Fukushima atmosphere does not bode well for the public sentiment towards the proposed programme, especially with regards to safety of an NPP. Nonetheless, during the six decades that NPPs have been in operation in 32 countries worldwide, there are only 19 serious accidents involving fatalities and/or damage to properties in excess of 100 million USD. Out of the three significant accidents - Fukushima nuclear accident (2011), Chernobyl nuclear accident (1986), and Three Miles Island nuclear accident (1979) - only the accident at Three Miles Island occurs during normal operation. Such can be implied that the operation of NPPs does maintain a high level of safety. The current technology on nuclear safety has been advancing greatly to the point that the new NPP design claims to render the possibility of a severe accident resulting in core melting insignificant. Along with the technical improvements, laws and regulations have also be progressing in parallel to adequately compensate and limit the liability of operators in case of a nuclear accident. The international agreements such as the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage and the Convention of the Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy had also been established and also the national laws of countries such as the United States and Japan have been implemented to address such issues to the point that victims of a nuclear accidents are adequately and justly compensated. In addition to the issues of nuclear accident, the dilemma in nuclear waste management, especially with regards to the High Level Waste which is highly radioactive while having very long half-lives, must also be addressed. The current waste management technology points towards storing such waste inside a deep geological depository. However, such a method is highly criticized if the integrity of the depository can be maintained after thousands of years. If Thailand does aim towards completing the nuclear power programme in the future, Thailand must find a practical and appropriate mean to manage the waste before all else.