Overview of the international legal framework governing the safe and peaceful uses of nuclear energy - Some practical steps

The accident on 26 April 1986 in unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Ukrainian Republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, near the present borders of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, was categorised at the time as 'the most devastating accident in the history of nuclear power'. Two decades on, the assessment of the health, environmental and socio-economic impacts of the accident still continues, with the aim of providing definitive and authoritative answers. In addition, from a legal perspective the accident underlined some significant deficiencies and gaps in the international legal and regulatory norms that had been established to govern the safe and peaceful uses of nuclear energy. At the same time, it stressed the need for a collective international focus on [nuclear] safety and, in its wake, prompted a call for the creation of an international regime for the safe development of [nuclear energy] under the auspices of the IAEA. For all its devastating consequences, the accident was in fact a wake-up call for the 'international nuclear community' and led to a new era in international nuclear cooperation, involving states which had so far been removed both geographically and technologically from nuclear power. In its aftermath, the international nuclear community, in an attempt to allay concerns of the public and political world over the use of the atom as a viable energy source, sought to rebuild confidence in the safety of nuclear energy, primarily through the IAEA, by urgently addressing those main deficiencies in the existing international legal framework that had been exemplified by the accident. As much as has already been written on the substantive provisions and negotiating history of the different international instruments that compromise this legal framework and that were developed under the auspices of the IAEA in the two decades since the Chernobyl accident, this paper only briefly describes their substance and the background leading to their respective development. More importantly, however, this paper highlights some of the practical steps taken since the accident, both by the IAEA and the international community, which underpin this framework. In addition, the paper identifies some of the current challenges and, in a brief outlook, considers some recent multilateral initiatives in the nuclear domain and their possible impact on future developments in nuclear law