Now, CAG focuses on lax nuclear safety

NEW DELHI: In case of a nuclear accident in India at present, the maximum fine that can be imposed by the regulator on an offending nuclear plant is Rs 500.

A CAG report on Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, has raised concern about the weak regulatory framework in the country that could pose potential danger like Chernobyl or the recent accident in Fukushima, Japan.

Worse, the AERB, which supervises safety issues of 22 running nuclear plants across the country, has no rule-making powers nor does it have authority of enforcement and levy of penalties in the context of nuclear safety oversight.

"The maximum amount of fine (Rs 500) was too low to serve as a deterrent against such infringements," the CAG said after a detailed audit of the regulator which is responsible for review of safety aspects of nuclear power plants and of all radiation facilities across the country.

While this sounds grim, in reality, two recent pieces of legislation are intended to resolve precisely these lacunae. The Nuclear Liability Act passed by Parliament in May 2010 makes the operator liable to pay "no-fault" compensation of up to Rs 1,500 crore, beyond which India can access the Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC) for additional liability.

The second piece of legislation is the Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority, which has just been cleared by the Union Cabinet and will subsume the AERB. It is intended to establish an autonomous nuclear energy regulator, which will not function under the Department of Atomic Energy as the case is at present.

The government's official auditor blamed the central government for not learning any lessons from the Fukushima disaster as failure to have an autonomous and empowered regulator is fraught with grave risks. The CAG backed its assertion quoting a recent independent investigation report on the Fukushima accident which confirmed that weak regulatory mechanism and oversight by regulators were the chief reasons behind the disaster.

The performance audit of AERB was undertaken in the context of the criticality of issues relating to radiation risks and the effectiveness of the nuclear regulator in the exercise of its role. "At the policy level, AERB has not yet prepared a radiation safety policy even after three decades of its existence. Standard setting is an essential part of the functions of a regulatory authority," the report said.