5 Dec (NucNet): Canada has signed the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC), bringing the treaty another step closer towards full ratification.
Joining the IAEA convention complements new measures that Canada will introduce in Parliament in the coming months to strengthen Canada’s nuclear liability legislation, a Canadian government statement said.
The CSC was adopted in 1997 to provide an overarching international liability instrument that would establish a uniform global regime for the compensation of victims of a nuclear accident.
The CSC aims at establishing a minimum national compensation amount and at increasing the amount of compensation through public funds if the national amount is insufficient to compensate the damage caused by a nuclear incident.
The IAEA said that 17 states, including Canada, have signed the CSC and four have ratified it.
The CSC will come into force on the ninetieth day after the ratification, acceptance or approval by at least five signatory states with a minimum of 400,000 units of installed nuclear capacity.
The text of the CSC is online:
www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Conventions/supcomp.html
