A key workshop to increase global collaboration on civil liability for nuclear damage has been held in Brazil.
There is increasing awareness about the importance and benefits of adhering to the relevant legal instruments adopted under the IAEA’s auspices, with a focus on the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC).
By fostering collaboration and sharing knowledge, the workshop sought to pave the way for increasing participation in the global regime on the basis of the convention.
The roundtable discussions at the workshop offered a forum for in-depth conversations on the global regime and the CSC, regional challenges and trends in this field and the national experiences of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Two case studies illustrated possible liability and compensation scenarios for nuclear incidents at a nuclear installation and during the transport of nuclear material.
Together with the Government of Brazil, through the Institute of Nuclear Engineering, a technical-scientific unit under the National Nuclear Energy Commission, the IAEA hosted the workshop from 24 to 27 October 2023, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Organised together with experts of the IAEA International Expert Group on Nuclear Liability (INLEX), the workshop brought together more than 30 participants from eight countries in the Latin America region.
“Organized as part of the Agency’s continuing efforts to facilitate the achievement of the Global Nuclear Liability Regime, this joint IAEA/INLEX activity provided an opportunity to highlight the benefits of the CSC to countries in the region. I hope that the interest expressed in the convention leads to an increase in its membership in the near future,” said Anthony Wetherall, Head, Nuclear and Treaty Law Section, IAEA Office of Legal Affairs.
"We welcome the IAEA experts to Brazil to conduct this important workshop which will provide all of us in the region with the needed knowledge and expertise in this field and a solid basis for a common understanding of the role that the CSC can play in addressing questions of nuclear liability and compensation,” said Mr. Francisco Rondinelli, Director General, National Nuclear Energy Commission of Brazil.
One of the purposes of the workshop was to provide the participants with a broad understanding of a Global Nuclear Liability Regime as called for in the 2011 IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety and addressed in the 2012 INLEX Recommendations and emphasized in INLEX’s 2022 Benefits Statement.
"The workshop was a stepping stone in improving our participation in the global regime by helping us to better understand some of the challenges and shedding light on the importance of educating stakeholders, senior officials, and congress members about the intricacies of our legal systems and nuclear policies," said Sigfredo Figueroa, Legal Advisor to the Directorate of Energy Hydrocarbons and Mining in El Salvador.
Following the workshop, the group also visited the Argonauta Research Reactor located at the Institute of Nuclear Engineering, which is used in postgraduate programmes of several institutions and universities in Brazil, among other uses.
