“Our discussions on insurance covers for nuclear risks are at a preliminary stage,” Irda chairman J Hari Narayan told ET. “We need to examine global practices of covering such a liability before taking a final view,” he said.
The nuclear treaty of last year allows India to carry out nuclear trade, have options for nuclear power and access to sensitive technology which are also used for nuclear weapons. But the absence of rules for insurance in the sector prevented progress in setting up new plants.
Currently, nuclear risks are not covered by any policy, as insurers do not have the wherewithal to estimate liabilities. All property insurance covers exclude losses due to nuclear reaction, nuclear radiation or radioactive contamination.
In most countries, operators of nuclear plants buy insurance cover as they are liable to pay compensation for any damage. Normally, the liability is limited by both international conventions and national legislation. The state has the responsibility to accept any liability more than insured. The absence of such covers here may make it difficult to fund relief, if an accident occurs.
The US, for instance, is not bound by any international nuclear liability convention. The liability from a nuclear accident is addressed by the Price Anderson Act of 1956, which provides $10 billion in cover without cost to the government. It covers power reactors, research reactors and all other nuclear facilities. More than $200 million has been paid by US insurance pools in claims and costs of litigation since the Price Anderson Act came into effect, all of it by the insurance pools.
The beginning of discussions itself may not lead to a set of rules soon, since the negotiations with global re-insurers are going to be hard. “There is now scope for private sector participation in nuclear power generation. We have been working with international re-insurers to form a pool to cover nuclear risks. But that will take some time to fructify,” said Yogesh Lohiya, chairman, GIC.
Incidentally, a partial cover for nuclear power plants was introduced by Oriental Insurance earlier under the chairmanship of Mr Lohiya. “At that time, providing a cover was difficult, as re-insurers wanted inspection of the site, which was not possible. Despite this, we managed to arrange cover for the cold zone of nuclear plants,” he said. A nuclear power plant has a “hot zone”, which is the critical area where the nuclear reactions take place and a “cold zone” where steam generated turbines are operated.
A pool mechanism, as in the case of terror insurance, may be a suitable one, said M Ramadoss, CMD at Oriental Insurance. Under a pool the premium collected by various insurers under terror cover are kept in a separate account. For any claim beyond a prescribed amount, the company dips into the pool resources to pay for claims. But that may not be enough, since claims from nuclear accidents could be huge and it may need government support.
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