(351.3493) WISE Stockholm - According to Skandia, a Swedish multinational insurance company, "The results clearly showed that damages from a nuclear accident can be so extensive that the total capacity of the world's insurance companies is probably not enough to cover compensation." For this reason, insurance companies have added a new clause to sea and transport insurance policies that as of 1 January 1991 excludes 'nuclear risks' from all insurance conditions.
The text from a policy dated 1 October 1990 by Witherby & Co. Ltd. London, England (coded "CL. 356") reads:
- "Institute Radioactive Contamination Exclusion Clause
- This clause shall be paramount and shall override anything contained in this insurance inconsistent therewith to by or arising from
- 1.1 ionising radiations from or contamination by radioactivity from any Nuclear Fuel or from any nuclear waste or from the combustion of Nuclear Fuel.
- 1.2 the radioactive, toxic, explosive, or other hazardous or contaminating properties of any nuclear installation, reactor or other nuclear assembly or nuclear component thereof.
- 1.3 any weapon of war employing atomic or nuclear fission and/or fusion or other like reaction or radioactive force or matter."
From this text, it is not clear if the new clause includes accidents from transport of yellowcake and uranium hexafluoride, two of the most commonly transported radio-active materials. However, the Swedish Sea Insurance Association is more clear in its version, which states there is no coverage for damages directly or indirectly caused by any radioactive product.
This does not mean, however, that the nuclear industry has been left without insurance. National govern-ments and nuclear companies have taken on the insurance responsibility. The arrangements and amount of insurance vary from nation to nation.
Source and contact: FMKK, Box 17246, S-10462 Stockholm, Sweden.
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