India today 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 India to the IAEA, Ambassador Rajiva Misra, delivered the instrument of ratification to Acting Director General Juan Carlos Lentijo, the Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security.
“On behalf of the IAEA Director General, I would like to congratulate India on joining this important convention,” said Lentijo.
Mr Misra in his remarks stated that joining the CSC was an important step for India. “We were eager to complete the process at the earliest, and today, with India joining the CSC, we are contributing to strengthening an international convention and global nuclear liability regime,” he said.
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 at increasing 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 at establishing 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.
