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TPL Transport Insurance

 

The carriage of nuclear material meets a very strict legislation based on the recommendations issued by the AIEA in its “Regulations for the Safe Transportof Radioactive Materials – edition 1996 (revised ) – collection safety codes n°TS-R-1 (ST-1, revised)”.

 

During these transport operations,   nuclear safety is based on maintaining the integrity of the parcels containing nuclear material. However, in case of an incident in which the integrity is involved, the damage caused to third parties by radiotoxic substances cannot be covered by ordinary marine or motor policies; particularly in France where the Insurance Code exclude this type of damage according to articles R211-8 et R211-11.

 

Two situations may occur:

 

 

Nuclear substances,as defined by article 1 of the Paris Convention, when transported, fall under the responsibility of a single nuclear operator for any damage to third parties.

In France, according to the current legislation implementing the Convention on Third Party Liability in the field of nuclear energy (the Paris convention) of 29th July 1960 amended 28th January 1964 and 16 November 1982, the nuclear operator shall be liable up to an amount of € 22,867,352.59 per incident.

 

In accordance with the law n°2006-686 of 13th June 2006related to nuclear transparency and safety, it is foreseen that this amount will increase  to € 70 million  when the 2004 Protocol to revise the Paris Convention comes into force.

 

 

These transports concern expeditions of nuclear materials for which the liability regime do not fall within the scope of the Paris Convention. Therefore, the damage are compensated according to the provisions of Common Law. In third party liability policies covering the marine transport of nuclear materials, coverage is provided to the policy holder but also to any party involved in the transport operations (with the exception of shipowners) in order to avoid accumulation of insurance. Virtually, the policy is taken by the sender.