Nuclear indemnity legislation in the United States

The United States legislation on the third party liability of operators of nuclear installations is contained in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and is generally known as the Price-Anderson Amendment. This amendment is due to expire on 1 August 1977. Therefore the Federal authorities have submitted to Congress a Bill containing new provisions on third party liability which take account of nuclear developments during these past years. The new system proposed retains the main features of the present provisions while providing for gradual phasing out of Government indemnity to be replaced by contributions from the nuclear industry; it also plans extension of financial protection to certain nuclear incidents occurring outside US territorial limits. The present limitation of liability for nuclear damage ($ 560 million) will be raised progressively as additional private funds are available. After being considered and adopted by Congress, the Bill was vetoed by the President on constitutional grounds. It must therefore be submitted again to Congress after it is revised