• Energy Research
• other engineering and technologies close
• 16. Peace & justice close
• Serbian close

The main focus of this paper lies with the national laws of three European countries (Germany, Austria and Hungary), as well as the EU law, relating to liability for damage caused by nuclear plant. The aforesaid European countries have enacted legislation prescribing stringent rules on liability of the operators of nuclear plants, meaning that for some forms of legally recognized harm (death, injury, damage to health) the operator incurs liability, even if damage was caused by force major. This type of strict liability, whereby force major is not reason for exculpation, provided that the damage could be related to functioning of the plant, is named absolute liability. In addition, some regimes introduce presumption of causality, when it is more likely than not that damage resulted from the effects of nuclear plants (or ionizing radiation, or secondary nuclear waste materials). The author also analyzes national and European rules on prevention of nuclear and other environmental damage, which includes the creation of the registry of nuclear plants with relevant data on domestic and European operators, the mechanisms of control of the operators, the requirement of preliminary ecological analysis in the construction of new plants, etc. In addition, the author observes differences between nuclear damage in broad and in narrow sense. The former is, in principle, redressed generally, to the extent possible. The latter is commonly redressed individually, to the extent prescribed by statutes.