International Civil Liabilities of the States for the Nuclear Activities

After the Hiroshima and Nagasaki being bombarded by the USA and also the reactor catastrophe at Chernobyl and ThereMillIsland and etc., the whole international community became concerned about the damage and loss of life and properties, which might be caused by the nuclear incidents. Nuclear accidents show that, in addition to the loss of life and property, several other serious diseases occur after chronicle low dose irradiation. Distortions of the central nervous system are observed, especially mental illness, as well as malfunction of other organs. Therefore, it seemed necessary to discuss several matters in relation to the nuclear activities, including: limitations created by nuclear plants, and liability and responsibility for injuries and damages caused by them, risk of the use of nuclear energy for the environment, the main principles of the state liabilities, concepts of nuclear activities and incidents and the main civil liabilities of the states and operators. Under the light of these matters, in this article, some fundamental questions related to the international civil liabilities of the states for the nuclear activities are considered in detail. In addition to the discussion as to reduction of the risks, in above cases, the entities which are liable for the given type of damage and loss are dealt with. The international civil liability treaties which contain uniform provisions for the type of damage and loss covered, type of liabilities (i.e. fault based or strict), financial limitations of liabilities are also dealt with properly. We finally came into the conclusion that irrespective of many rules and regulations as to the civil liabilities and responsibilities of the states, there are still some deficiencies which are carefully discussed and dealt with in this article.