Channeling of liability
The principle that puts the whole liability for an accident on the nuclear operator, to the exclusion of suppliers in the industrial chain.
The Paris Convention of July 29, 1960 on third party liability in the field of nuclear energy, followed by the Vienna Convention of May 21, 1963, channel to the operator alone the duty to compensate nuclear damage. The victim therefore need not identify the defective supplier within a chain of thousands of firms. This channeling of liability is part of a bargain with the victim, who obtains in exchange strict liability and compulsory financial security. It still carries a heavy economic consequence. The maker of a defective component bears no residual liability, and the capped operator has no interest in demanding more. Civil liability, which disciplines supply chains elsewhere, is thus switched off exactly where a defect can render a territory uninhabitable.
In December 2025, India removed the statutory supplier recourse and restored full channeling of liability onto the operator. Only the public never consented.
channelling of liability, legal channelling, operator liability
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