Strengthening of Nuclear Liability Demo

extent that continued application of the Convention is no longer warranted. Similar provisions on the possible exclusion of nuclear installations being decommissioned have been proposed in the original draft of the Amended Vienna Convention. 58 Mining and milling facilities Not all facilities interconnected directly, or indirectly with nuclear sector, do fall under the Vienna Convention. Some facilities, as for example those used for mining, milling and the physical concentration of uranium ores, do not involve high levels of radioactivity. Hence, these activities do not fall within the scope of the Convention. Factories for the manufacture or processing of natural or depleted uranium, facilities for the storage of natural or depleted uranium, and the transport of natural or depleted uranium, since the level of radioactivity is low and there are no criticality risks, are also excluded . 59 Low risk installations Further, the Vienna Convention envisages the possibility of an Installation State to exclude any small quantities of nuclear material from the application of this Convention, provided that maximum limits for the exclusion of such quantities have been established by the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency; and any exclusion by an Installation State is within such established limits. The maximum limits shall be reviewed periodically by the Board of Governors. However, unlike theParisConvention, 60 theViennaConventiondoes not envisage the possibility to exclude “low risk installations” from the scope of applicability of the Convention. In particular, this provision might be of importance for some types of research reactors , but also for some types of small nuclear reactors . 61 Consequently, the Amended Vienna Convention contains a new provision, 62 which allows such exclusion, provided that criteria for such exclusion have been established by the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency. 58 See HORBACH, N., HANENBURG, E. Legal Aspects of the Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities: A Comparative View, Nuclear Law Bulletin , Paris, 58, 1996, p. 39. 59 Similarly, risks which arise in respect of radioisotopes usable for any industrial, commercial, agricultural, medical, scientific or educationa l purposes are excluded from the scope of the Convention. Further, where materials, such as uranium salts, are used incidentally in various industrial activities not related to the nuclear industry, such usage does not bring the plant concerned within the scope of the Convention. 60 The Paris Convention provides in the Article 1 /b/ that the Steering Committee may, if in its view the small extent of the risks involved so warrants, exclude any nuclear installation, nuclear fuel, or nuclear substances from the application of this Convention. 61 See RILEY, P. Institutional Challenges to Mini Nuclear Power: A Way forward, In AIDN/INLA, ed. Nuclear Inter Jura 2009 , Toronto : AIDN/INLA, 2009, pp. 153-162. 62 Article I par. 2.

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