nuclear liability
DESCRIPTION
19 December 2007, Brussels Daniël Meijers, Anti-nuclear Campaigner, FoEE Event: Roundtable on the impact of nuclear liability regimes on the EU energy market See background paper online at http://www.foeeurope.org/activities/Nuclear/pdf/2007/Face_your_demons.pdfTRANSCRIPT
Third Party Liability forNuclear Power Plant-operators
19 December 2007
Extent of disaster damagespresentation at the
“Roundtable on the impact of nuclear liability regimes on the EU energy market”
Daniël MeijersFriends of the Earth [email protected]
Third Party Liability forNuclear Power Plant-operators
146 nuclear reactors in Europe
Average lifespan: ~25 years
Core-melt accident frequency:once in 20,000 reactor years
Chance of a core melt accident occurring:
approximately: 20%
A history of large losses
AZF fertilizer factorySeptember 21st, 2001 – Toulouse, France
Insured loss: € 1,800 million
Exxon-Valdez oil spillMarch 1989
Clean up: $ 2,500 millionFinancial compensation: $ 1,100 million
September 11 Terrorist attacks
Insured loss: $ 20,700 million
Hurricane KatrinaAugust 2005
Insured loss: $ 45,000 million
Disaster damage estimates
Severe Earthquake in California
Estimates of total direct economic loss are $93.8 - $122.4 billion(2006 estimate)
Global Climate Change(by 2040)
Estimated insured damage:
$ 1 trillion(annually)
Loss due to nuclear disaster
Three Mile Island(1979)
Estimated damage:$ 1,000 million
Chernobyl(1986)
Direct loss in the former Soviet Union: $ 15,000 million
Damage is estimated to accumulate to € 235,000 million for Ukraine and € 201,000 million for Belarus
Current liability minimums
Current liability minimums
Revised Paris and Vienna Conventions:(not yet into force)
Minimum Operator Liability: € 700 million
Core Damage Loss Estimates
Third party damages:
€ 83,252 million - € 5,469,000 million(national insured minimum: € 700 million)
Worst Imaginable Accident
For every € 8,000 of civil damagesonly € 1.02 of compensation is required
from the nuclear operator
Polluter-pays principle!
Currently, nuclear operators collect the profits of their nuclear power plants, but they shift the associated risk to the general public.
Every time operators pay an insurance fee which does not cover total possible damages, society invisibly pays the rest – invisibly, until a major accident happens.
Friends of the Earth Europe demands that operators of nuclear power plants take full (financial) responsibility for the risks they take when producing nuclear energy.