Third Party Liability forNuclear Power Plant-operators

19 December 2007

Extent of disaster damagespresentation at the

“Roundtable on the impact of nuclear liability regimes on the EU energy market”

Daniël MeijersFriends of the Earth Europedaniel.meijers@foeeurope.org

Third Party Liability forNuclear Power Plant-operators

146 nuclear reactors in Europe

Average lifespan: ~25 years

Core-melt accident frequency:once in 20,000 reactor years

Chance of a core melt accident occurring:

approximately: 20%

A history of large losses

AZF fertilizer factorySeptember 21st, 2001 – Toulouse, France

Insured loss: € 1,800 million

Exxon-Valdez oil spillMarch 1989

Clean up: $ 2,500 millionFinancial compensation: $ 1,100 million

September 11 Terrorist attacks

Insured loss: $ 20,700 million

Hurricane KatrinaAugust 2005

Insured loss: $ 45,000 million

Disaster damage estimates

Severe Earthquake in California

Estimates of total direct economic loss are $93.8 - $122.4 billion(2006 estimate)

Global Climate Change(by 2040)

Estimated insured damage:

$ 1 trillion(annually)

Loss due to nuclear disaster

Three Mile Island(1979)

Estimated damage:$ 1,000 million

Chernobyl(1986)

Direct loss in the former Soviet Union: $ 15,000 million

Damage is estimated to accumulate to € 235,000 million for Ukraine and € 201,000 million for Belarus

Current liability minimums

Current liability minimums

Revised Paris and Vienna Conventions:(not yet into force)

Minimum Operator Liability: € 700 million

Core Damage Loss Estimates

Third party damages:

€ 83,252 million - € 5,469,000 million(national insured minimum: € 700 million)

Worst Imaginable Accident

For every € 8,000 of civil damagesonly € 1.02 of compensation is required

from the nuclear operator

Polluter-pays principle!

Currently, nuclear operators collect the profits of their nuclear power plants, but they shift the associated risk to the general public.

Every time operators pay an insurance fee which does not cover total possible damages, society invisibly pays the rest – invisibly, until a major accident happens.

Friends of the Earth Europe demands that operators of nuclear power plants take full (financial) responsibility for the risks they take when producing nuclear energy.