The Necessity of Laws on Third-Party and Civil Liability for Industrial Nuclear Damages Caused by Installations: Health Assurance Compensation

Abstract

With the modern requisites of humankind, energy has become the most depleting resource due to waste and lack of sources. In the present world, nuclear energy sources play a vital role in producing energy by fueling radioactive elements. The most significant feature of atomic energy is that a small amount of radioactive substances can release a tremendous amount of energy. Most developed and developing countries use nuclear energy as a power-making resource for public and private purposes. Therefore, it is imperative that a developing country like Sri Lanka adopt nuclear power technologies and the laws governing nuclear operations. This research discusses international nuclear laws and the need for a legal framework to manage the liability of nuclear damages in terms of people's health and potential harm to health, past experiences of exposure to ionizing radiation are discussed with statistics to find out the necessity of laws on nuclear liability in terms of health compensation. The scrutiny supplies a directive authority to make domestic legislation without being dependent on international instruments, as the paper also discusses the drawbacks of international nuclear liability regimes against principles of nuclear law and the essentials of a nuclear liability regime. The primary objective of the study is to find out directive measures for a nuclear liability regime in terms of health assurance. In addition, this research also discusses directive principles to make equitable compensation liability schemes from the victims' perspective. The books, research papers, international conventions, and domestic legislation were the primary sources of the research. Sri Lanka's legal framework needs improvement as an independent law, aligning with the Vienna Convention on nuclear liability, as international law lacks equitable aspects.