On 6 June 2017, Canada deposited its instrument of ratification of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC), an important multilateral treaty relating to liability and compensation for damage caused by a nuclear incident.
The Permanent Representative of Canada to the IAEA, Ambassador Mark Bailey, delivered the instrument of ratification to Director General Yukiya Amano. Canada is the tenth country to become a party to the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage.
“On behalf of the IAEA, I congratulate Canada on joining this important Convention,” said Mr Amano.
“Canada is pleased to become the tenth country to ratify the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage to date. This is a significant step towards establishing a uniform global nuclear civil liability regime, based on common international principles, which is increasingly important as more countries embark on nuclear power programs,” said the Honourable Jim Carr, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, from Ottawa.
The CSC was adopted on 12 September 1997, together with the Protocol to Amend the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage, and entered into force on 15 April 2015. It aims to increase the amount of compensation available in the event of a nuclear incident through public funds to be made available by the Contracting Parties on the basis of their installed nuclear capacity and UN rate of assessment. It also aims to establish treaty relations among States that belong to the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage, the Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy or neither of them, while leaving intact the 1988 Joint Protocol that establishes treaty relations among States that belong to the Vienna Convention or the Paris Convention.
