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United Arab Emirates Ratifies Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage

Ambassador Hamad Ali Alkaabi, Resident Representative of the United Arab Emirates to the IAEA (left), deposited the UAE's instrument of ratification of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC) with IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano at the Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria, 7 July 2014. (Photo: D. Calma/IAEA)

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has ratified the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC), a key international instrument relating to liability and compensation for damage caused by a nuclear accident.

UAE Ambassador Hamad Ali Alkaabi signed and delivered the instrument of ratification to IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano on 7 July 2014.

The Convention now has 18 Signatories and five Contracting States, but it will not enter into force until at least five States with a minimum installed nuclear capacity of 400 000 MWs of thermal power have ratified it.

"Entry into force of the Convention will be an important step towards establishing a global liability regime," Director General Amano said. "Helping to bring about its entry into force is a priority for the IAEA," he added.

Nuclear liability is one of the many elements of the Action Plan on Nuclear Safety adopted by IAEA Member States after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident.

Director General Amano said that he hoped the decision by the United Arab Emirates to join the CSC would help to build momentum towards its entry into force. Adherence to the Convention is being seriously studied by a number of countries and there is a real prospect of its entry into force in the near future, he reiterated.

Background

The Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC)was adopted on 12 September 1997 to modernize and enhance the international legal regime in light of the 1986 Chernobyl accident.

The Convention has two main objectives. The first is to establish "a worldwide liability regime" in which all States may participate. Accordingly, the Convention is open not only to States that are party to an existing nuclear liability convention, such as the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage, but also to other States, provided that their national legislation is consistent with the uniform rules on civil liability laid down in the Annex to the Convention.

Secondly, the Convention also aims to increase the amount of compensation available in the event of a nuclear incident by establishing a minimum national compensation amount and an international fund to which Contracting Parties will be expected to contribute in the event of a nuclear accident.

Last update: 27 Jul 2017

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