Concerns related to global warming are getting intense with every passing day. Desirable goal of limiting warming to within 1.50 C above pre-industrial levels seems nowhere in sight and is likely to be breached sooner than later. There is increasing evidence that without a significant contribution from nuclear energy, this goal would be unaffordable and unlikely to be realized. A climate apartheid has been predicted to be imminent where only the rich would survive.

The 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC that took place in December 2015 in Paris has been historic in reaching a consensus on a critical issue that affects the globe as a whole. Even so the studies that assess temperature increases suggest that with the INDCs announced by parties, we will witness 2.7-3.7 degrees C (median chance) of warming compared with pre-industrial levels. This is an improvement over business-as-usual trends, which would lead to 4-5 degrees C of warming, but falls short of the goal to limit warming to below 2 degrees C. (Ref– World Resources Institute –Insider Nov., 9, 2015).

A quick look at Fig. 1 would suggest that we need around 5000 kWh/capita of electricity annually to reach a respectable human development index in our country. Being based on global statistics, in today's highly interconnected and interdependent world, we can surely depend on this number as a bench mark that we must achieve. Our current per capita electricity use is however a factor of seven lower. Unfortunately our population is also growing. Indications are that, we are likely to stabilize around 1.6 to 1.8 billion people. We thus need to secure energy resources and technologies to harness them at a level ten times larger than what we have at present. Indian Nuclear Society
Quarterly Newsletter
(Vol.9, NO. 2, April-June, 2012)

Japan has seen large scale destruction caused by nuclear weapons attack as well as intense public trauma as a result of the severe accident at Fukushima reactors. There is therefore a deep sensitivity among Japanese people regarding nuclear matters. It is remarkable that Japan became a leader in nuclear power technology and made nuclear energy a key ingredient of its energy security architecture after suffering Hiroshima and Nagasaki destruction. Discipline of Japanese people in orderly response to tsunami and the reactor accident has been exemplary. To me even more remarkable has been the decision to restart Ohi-3 & 4 nuclear units in the aftermath of such high impact nuclear disaster and very bold and frank report of independent Parliamentary Accident Investigation Committee identifying the root cause of Fukushima accident as a “Made in Japan” crisis caused by the “ingrained conventions of Japanese culture”.

Emerging economies in the developing world and the global development process is bound to become a more dominant factor that would push demand for energy at a faster pace as compared to growth in energy demand in the industrialised economies. Looking at the level of this additional demand and the need to minimise the threat due to climate change, increasing dependence on nuclear energy with closed fuel cycle appears inevitable.

Thank you for inviting me to this round table discussion on civil liability for nuclear damage act and rules. I would like to focus my remarks on the specific parameters for civil nuclear liability regime that are important in the Indian context. Work on development of legislation in this area had started several years before any discussion on bringing India out of Nuclear Supplier Group embargo began. Two groups, one an inter-ministerial group and the other a consultation group involving external experts (National Law School, NIAS, etc.) studied contours and contents of a possible nuclear liability regime for India. The motivation was to keep abreast with emerging international thinking in this area in view of the growing Indian nuclear power program and the need to understand issues related to cross border radioactivity movement in case of an accident. This preparation came in handy in preparing the bill. While the process did get accelerated as a result of progress of discussion on development of international civil nuclear cooperation, it would be wrong to say that the bill has come about exclusively as a result of "Indo-US deal".