Statutes

AuthorL. J. Blom‐Cooper
Date01 November 1959
Published date01 November 1959
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1959.tb00564.x
STATUTES
NUCLEAR
~ST~LL~TIONS
(LICENSING
AND
~SURANCE)
ACT,
1959
WHEN
the nuclear energy age burst in upon
our
world eighteen years
ago all the work was focused upon the potential military uses of
this new source
of
energy.
It
was not until
1945
at the cessation
of
hostilities that this country turned its attention to the civil
applications of nuclear energy and embarked upon long-term pros-
pects for supplying the country with
an
alternative method
of
power-production.
Legislation in the field
of
nuclear energy was called for initially
to ensure effective control by the Government over all fissionable
materials; hence the Atomic Energy Act,
1946,
and the Radioactive
Substances Act,
1948.
The immense potentialities
of
this new
form
of
electrical power led inevitably to the creation
of
a novel type of
public corporation. The nuclear power field had become too vast
for
a
government department (it had been under the Ministry of
Supply); what was needed was the combination of the freedom and
flexibility of
an
industrial enterprise yet the retention of the reins
of control by the Government to guard the secrets of nuclear energy’s
military aspects. Hence the creation of the Atomic Energy Authority
under the Atomic Energy Authority Act,
1954.
Up to this stage the lawyer in private practice was rarely called
upon to consider this new field
of
legislation. But with the advent
of
the building
of
nuclear power reactors by industrial
he
and the
projected ownership of these power-plants by the Central Electricity
Generating Board
as
well
as
ownership
of
research reactors by a few
enterprising public and private companies, the lawyer and the legally
trained administrator were called into action.
Against this background of swift advancement into
a
new field
of
industry the Nuclear Installations (Licensing and Insurance) Act,
1959,
was passed
on
July
9,1959-no
Order in Council
has
yet been
made bringing the Act into force
(s.
14
(2)).
The Act deals conveniently with three distinct aspects
of
the
regulation
of
nuclear power sites, namely, licensing of nuclear sites
(8s.
1-8
and
6-8),
compensation for any damage to person
or
property
from
any ionising radiation
(s.
4)
and
a
scheme of compulsory insur-
ance
(8.
5).
While licensing,
as
the preventive element
in
this piece
of
legislation, rightly demands the wholetime attention of the
administrator
it
is the other (curative) aspects which
will
more
frequently engage the lawyer’s attentions.
A
new creature
of
statutory duty has been devised, without
specifying the precise ways
in
which that duty is to be exercised
(as
in the Factories Act,
1987);
the creature becomes little short
of
649

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