Former Atomic Energy Commission Chairman P K Iyengar on Wednesday raised a red flag over certain provisions of the nuclear liability bill, including keeping civil courts off limits in case of a nuclear accident.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left parties have already indicated opposition to the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill that is key to operationalise the landmark Indo-US nuclear deal. The Bill pegs the maximum amount of liability in case of each nuclear accident at Rs 300 crore to be paid by the operator of the nuclear plant.
Under a 2010 nuclear liability law, nuclear equipment suppliers are liable for damages from an accident, which companies say is a sharp deviation from international norms
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was taken over by Russian forces last month, has stopped transmitting data to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations atomic watchdog has said, expressing deep concern for the staff working under Russian troops at the nuclear site in northern Ukraine.
'Putin is just flexing his muscles. He is not going to do anything. He is not that crazy.'
India and the United States on Sunday achieved a breakthrough in operationalisation of the stalled nuclear deal
During last week's Nuclear Security Summit, President Obama asked the media to leave and then screened videos depicting plausible scenarios pertaining to nuclear terrorism.
India's nuclear operator has started loading enriched uranium fuel in the first reactor of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project after getting the final clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) on Tuesday.
The Civil Nuclear Liability Bill is likely to come up for consideration in Parliament on Wednesday
The first five months of 2023 have witnessed at least six major events/trends that augur badly for global economic and socio-political prospects, points out Shankar Acharya, former chief economic adviser to the Government of India.
Royal tragedies, loony vampires, nuclear disasters, scoop hunters becoming the story, all that and more on OTT this week.
An obviously chagrined United States-India Business Council, which has lobbied feverishly for the passage of the US-India civilian nuclear deal in the US Congress, on Monday issued a guarded reaction to the passage of the nuclear liability bill in the Parliament that had 'compromised on the indemnity clause demanded by American companies to protect it from liability in case of a nuclear accident.'
'Why should we disclose classified information to satisfy those who doubt our Hydrogen Bomb capability?'
Even as political acrimony over the Nuclear Liability Bill rages in and outside Parliament, India's old-time friend Russia has clearly told the Indian establishment that it will not accept any liability for the supply of equipment and other material to help India build its nuclear power plants, either in the present or future.
The government refuted the charge that the Nuclear Liability Bill was being brought under foreign pressure and said it is willing to refer the measure to a Parliamentary Standing Committee for scrutiny on Thursday.
India and Pakistan are expected to sign an agreement on reducing risks from nuclear accidents during Kasuri's visit.
He said Pakistan was working with the international community to ensure the security of its nuclear installations, which were always in safe hands.
The Indian Nuclear Energy Pool, meant to insure risks from nuclear reactors, may take longer to be set up. While the idea of forming a pool was mooted earlier this year, it has reached a deadlock owing to differences among the stakeholders on certain clauses.
Congressional report estimated Pakistan's nuclear warheads to be between 110-130.
Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who is in-charge of Department of Atomic Energy, said the country lacks a law under which compensation could be awarded in the case of a nuclear accident.
At 1:23 am on April 26, 1986, operators in the control room of Reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power facility botched a routine safety test, resulting in an explosion, and a fire that burned for 10 days.
According to sources, the government has convened a meeting involving the Nuclear Power Corporation and General Insurance Corporation (GIC), the only domestic re-insurer in the country, to take stock of the progress.
As Japan's earthquake and tsunami triggers the global nuclear industry's worst crisis, it is time for India to rethink it ambitious nuclear power programme, says Praful Bidwai
Maria Sharapova became a goodwill ambassador for the UN Development Fund and donated $100,000 to the Chernobyl victims.
From the resurrected cash-for-votes scandal to a rigged process favouring four foreign vendors -- and from new safety concerns to the special legislation that caps the foreign suppliers' accident liability by burdening the Indian taxpayer -- the nuclear deal's future looks more troubled than ever, says Brahma Chellaney.
'The leak is likely to continue for some time before it becomes stable, but this is something that NPCIL, who is the plant operator, will have to do. For this, we have to plan very carefully.'
The study also said that the war would plunge the world into a "nuclear winter" that could lead to global climate catastrophe.
Let's take a look at some nations, including India, that depend on nuclear power to provide energy needs.
The death of bin Laden on May 2 last year has not removed or diluted the threat of jihadi terrorist organisations acquiring a nuclear capability, argues B Raman.
Indian-American Republican leader Nikky Haley has endorsed her former boss Donald Trump as the party's candidate for the presidential election, delivering the message of unity after their bitter rivalry during the presidential primary.
Iran's military base, believed to house the country's missile research facility, was totally obliterated by a recent deadly explosion when the technicians were at the final stages of testing a long range missile, apparently capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
The agreement was reached in intensive negotiations between contact groups that Obama and Modi had set up in September.
United States Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday flew back home from Geneva with his orthopaedic surgeon on board, after breaking his right leg in a cycling accident in the French Alps.
While nuclear engineers cheer KNPP's first full operation, on nine other sites which house atomic reactors, scientists spend sleepless nights.
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the Bhopal tragedy have brought back into focus the issue of industrial accidents, contractual liabilities and questions of operator liability, notes Manoj Kumar and Lydia Powell in an Observer Research Foundation study, which will be published in a three-part series. Here goes the first part:
'Not a single person I spoke to there believes that the Kundalkulam plant is safe.'
The military conflict around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine -- Europe's largest nuclear plant -- has raised fears of an accident worse than the Chernobyl accident in 1986.
Superior general of the Missionaries of Charity, sister Mary Joseph, on Saturday said nuns of her order were serving the war-affected people in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Scientists are puzzled by what caused the mysterious nuclear leak at the Kakrapar Nuclear Power Plant in Gujarat last year, reveals Pallava Bagla.
Neither the BJP, nor the Congress before it, made any manifesto commitments on defence spending, even though allocations have plummeted from 4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the late 1980s to less than 2 per cent today, points out Ajai Shukla.
