What Is Nuclear Insurance?

Nuclear insurance is a strategic insurance guarantee provided by the insurance industry for the nuclear energy industry. The nuclear insurance community is a common insurance and reinsurance organization that is jointly organized by multiple insurance companies in a country to provide insurance protection services for nuclear facilities and nuclear substances.

Due to the special nature of nuclear damages, the conventional insurance market does not cover such businesses. Each nuclear power country basically uses its own insurance company and reinsurance company as the main body to establish a nuclear insurance community (hereinafter referred to as "nuclear community") to conduct nuclear insurance management.

Nuclear insurance is a strategic insurance guarantee provided by the insurance industry for the nuclear energy industry. The nuclear insurance community is a common insurance and reinsurance organization that is jointly organized by multiple insurance companies in a country to provide insurance protection services for nuclear facilities and nuclear substances. The nuclear community and the development of the nuclear energy industry have accompanied each other. The first nuclear community in the world was established in the United States in 1956, even before the first commercial nuclear power unit in the world. The American nuclear community was the first in the world in March 1957 The commercial nuclear power unit issued the first nuclear insurance policy. Subsequently, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, etc. have successively established the Nuclear Community Organization. At present, there are 25 nuclear community organizations in the world, which have insured all over 400 nuclear power reactors worldwide.

The China Nuclear Community was established in September 1999 with the approval of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. After 15 years of development, it has concentrated more than 90% of China's nuclear insurance underwriting capacity. The new model of inter-industry cooperation and catastrophe risk management initiated by the China Nuclear Community not only adapts to the characteristics of nuclear damage, but also provides a good reference for insurance protection of other catastrophe risks.

Nuclear insurance usually includes nuclear material loss insurance and nuclear third party liability insurance. The nuclear material loss insurance mainly covers the loss of property and damage to machinery and equipment caused by natural disasters, man-made accidents, and nuclear radiation in nuclear power plants. The nuclear third party liability insurance mainly covers the nuclear damage liability of operators (or carriers) of various civilian nuclear facilities (including nuclear power plants, various nuclear facilities in the nuclear fuel cycle and the transportation process of nuclear materials, etc.).

Due to the special nature of nuclear damages liability, all countries require nuclear facilities to hold mandatory financial guarantees required by law in nuclear damage compensation laws. Nuclear insurance has the characteristics of covering the entire life cycle of nuclear facilities and can provide comprehensive nuclear facilities with nuclear facilities. Liability for damages. Taking nuclear power plants as an example, nuclear insurance can provide insurance protection and risk management services ranging from the first loading of nuclear fuel to the removal of radioactive pollution after decommissioning, with a time span close to 100 years. Providing such long-term protection for nuclear damages comes from the long-term, stable financial status and strong solvency of a special organization such as the Nuclear Community, and more importantly, the Nuclear Community also provides It requires a large amount of human, material and financial support for on-site investigation, loss determination, adjustment and compensation service capabilities.

The nuclear third party liability insurance mainly covers the nuclear damage liability of operators (or carriers) of various civilian nuclear facilities (including nuclear power plants, various nuclear facilities in the nuclear fuel cycle and the transportation process of nuclear materials, etc.). Nuclear third party liability insurance is responsible for the liability of the subject of the liability to the victim. The fundamental purpose is to transfer the liability of the subject of liability and to ensure that the victim receives economic compensation in accordance with the law.

In all countries with nuclear damage compensation legislation, nuclear third party liability insurance is in the form of compulsory insurance, and it is also an important part of the nuclear safety supervision department to check whether the operator has a qualified operating qualification. The compulsoryness and importance of nuclear third party liability insurance originates from the legal requirements of the national nuclear damage liability law on the one hand, and it is also cost-effective and can provide long-term and stability with nuclear third party liability insurance. There is a close relationship between the financial guarantee and the characteristics of the accident damage compensation process.

At present, most of the nuclear damage compensation bodies in nuclear countries in the world have purchased sufficient nuclear third party liability insurance in accordance with the provisions of their domestic nuclear damage compensation laws. Although China still does not have a law on liability for nuclear damages, some of the subjects of liability for nuclear damages have purchased nuclear third party liability insurance in accordance with the relevant provisions of the "State Council's Reply on Liability for Nuclear Accidents" (2007), such as: Nuclear power plant operators purchased 300 million yuan of third-party liability insurance, and some carriers of nuclear material also purchased 100 million yuan or 300 million yuan of third-party liability insurance, depending on the nature of the nuclear material being transported. Third party liability insurance for nuclear facilities and transportation of nuclear material. China's nuclear third party liability insurance bears the liability for nuclear damage compensation to third parties caused by the insured according to law and the judicial costs incurred as a result of legal proceedings.

As a form of risk protection for nuclear facilities, nuclear insurance has played a unique role in establishing and improving the risk management and nuclear damage compensation system of nuclear facilities from the perspective and expertise of the insurer.

(I) Risk Management

The risk management provided by nuclear insurance is different from the international nuclear energy peer assessment of WONA and OSART (Operational Safety Review Team). It focuses on providing risk management services to operators from the perspective of disaster prevention and reduction and economic loss. The risk inspections carried out by the Nuclear Community are divided into the International Nuclear Community Engineers inspection (generally carried out in a 3-5 year cycle) and the Domestic Nuclear Community Engineers inspection (generally once a year). The risk management of the Nuclear Community is not limited to a certain country, a certain type of reactor, a certain standard or a certain design, but a broader analysis and comparison and absorption of advanced technology implementation methods and management methods in various combinations.

In order to implement the special perspective of nuclear insurance risks, the International Nuclear Insurance Community System has developed three guidelines for risk management, namely the International Guidelines for Preventive Evaluation of Nuclear Power Plant Mechanical Failures and the International Guidelines for Preventive Evaluation of Fire and Fire Prevention of Nuclear Power Plants. "," International Nuclear Community Engineering Inspection Guidelines (Nuclear Safety Operations and Third Party Liability). " The above three guidelines are widely accepted and recognized by nuclear power customers worldwide, and are important reference documents for the nuclear community's risk inspection activities and nuclear power plants' daily disaster prevention and reduction activities. In particular, the "Community Fire Safety Guidelines", even before the International Atomic Energy Agency's fire power safety guidelines, is one of the important reference materials of the International Atomic Energy Agency fire power safety guidelines.

(2) Processing and management of nuclear damages compensation

As a professional risk management agency, insurance companies have recruited a large number of claims processing professionals in the long-term insurance business operations, covering human, social, economic, medical, legal and other professional fields, and have accumulated expertise in damage compensation. And physical resources to build software and hardware platforms such as physical operating agencies throughout the country and telephone call systems, computer registration, processing systems, and digital payment systems capable of handling large-scale crowd claims. These resources of insurance companies will Play an important role in damages.

Nuclear insurance, as a financial means for nuclear facility operators to assume liability for nuclear damages, has special requirements for the safety, stability, and long-term nature of nuclear insurance.

The nuclear insurance provided by the Chinese Nuclear Community and the International Nuclear Community System, which provides reinsurance support for the Chinese Nuclear Community, builds an international nuclear community network based on long-term mutual support to build insurance coverage for global nuclear facilities. A long-term, secure and stable guarantee network.

The nuclear insurance provided by the International Nuclear Community will eventually be compensated by more than 400 well-qualified insurance companies around the world. These companies are member companies of the nuclear communities of various countries. Performance of claims. This risk diversification mechanism of the International Nuclear Community has been serving the nuclear industry since the first commercial nuclear power plant was put into operation in 1956. It has also experienced the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and the Tokai Village nuclear accident and thousands of The actual test of an insured accident is a long-term practice that has proven to be highly secure, stable, and long-term.

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