Risk of nuclear damage

Following the opening and words of welcome by Mr. Fritz Unterpertinger (unit director at the Austrian Federal Ministry for the Environment, Youth and Family; BMUJF) Mrs Helga Kromp-Kolb (professor at the Institute for Meteorology and Physics of the University of Natural Resources Science Vienna) illustrated the risks of nuclear damage in Europe by means of a nuclear risk map. She explained that even from a scientific or technical point of view the assessment of risks arising from nuclear power stations was fraught with great uncertainties. Estimates about in how far MCAs (maximum credible accident) could still be controlled by safety systems vary widely and so do assessments of the probability of a core melt. But there is wide agreement in all risk assessments conducted so far that MCAs might occur within a - from a human point of view - conceivable number of years. In this connection one has to bear in mind that the occurrence of such a major accident - whatever its probability may be - could entail immense damage and the question arises whether or not it is at all justifiable to expose the general public to such a risk. Klaus Rennings (Centre for European Economic Research, Mannheim, Germany) dealt with the economic aspects of nuclear risk assessment. He explained that there are already a number of studies available aiming to assess the risk of damage resulting from a core melt accident in economic terms. As to the probability of occurrence estimates vary widely between one incident in 3,333 and 250,000 year of reactor operation. It is assumed, however, that a nuclear accident involving a core melt in Germany would probably exceed the damage caused by the Chernobyl accident. The following speakers addressed the legal aspects of risks associated with nuclear installations. Mrs Monika Gimpel-Hinteregger (professor at the Institute for Civil Law in Graz) gave an overview on the applicable Austrian law concerning third party liability in the field of nuclear energy, the Act on Third party Liability for Damages from Nuclear Incidents of the year 1964 being the most important piece of legislation. She underlined that the Austrian nuclear liability law does in no way come up to the potential damage inherent to nuclear installations. This could be simply illustrated by the fact that in the event of a nuclear incident liability is limited to ATS 500 million and operators of nuclear installations are granted generous privileges limiting their liability, such as establishing a maximum amount of liability coverage even in the case of damage arising from gross negligence, or limited liability to provide compensation for any personal injury or any loss of, or damage to, property. The Austrian liability law does not consider the potential danger originating from foreign nuclear installations and hence does not cover damage resulting therefrom. As a response to the Chernobyl disaster the Standing Committee on Nuclear Liability of the IAEO has since 1989 been trying to improve compensation for victims from nuclear incidents as laid down in existing nuclear liability conventions. As a consequence, the Vienna Convention was revised to include a guaranteed liability coverage of 150 million SDRs (US $ 216 million). Another outcome of the negotiations was the Supplementary Funding Convention under which - in addition to the insurance coverage - per nuclear incident the Installation state has to ensure the availability of 300 million SDRs, the Contracting Parties are to make available another 300 million SDR on the basis of joint and several liability, half of the amount being earmarked for compensation of transboundary damage. (author)