CRIMINAL LIABILITY FOR ECOLOGICAL DAMAGE RESULTING FROM NUCLEAR TRANSPORT

Florin Octavian BARBU

 Abstract

According to art. VII point 1 of the Vienna Convention, the State in whose territory

the facility is located ensures the payment of nuclear damage allowances, recognized as

being the responsibility of the operator, providing the necessary amounts insofar as the

insurance or the financial guarantee would not be sufficient.

The special character of the civil liability for nuclear damage also concerns the

exonerating cases of liability. These have a restrictive character and include the

assumptions in which the nuclear damage caused by a nuclear accident resulted directly

from acts of armed conflict, hostilities, civil war or insurrection.

According to the polluter pays principle, in the area of nuclear damage liability the

operator pays, any conditioning on the subjective attitude of this person towards the

accident and the damage produced is removed. The evidence of the fault of the responsible

person is eliminated, which is impossible to manage, on the one hand, and there is the risk of

not covering the damages produced in very serious circumstances, often impossible to

evaluate, on the other.

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