원자력 사업자의 민사책임에 관한 비교법적 검토 - 미국, 일본, 한국의 비교분석 -

Nuclear liability law has been established in countries as a means of ensuring a speedy and effective remedies for damages arising from nuclear incidents, and easing barriers for civil entities’ joining in nuclear power generation, such as unpredictable liability risks. In light of such purposes, nuclear liability law has established distinguished principles, widely incorporated in national legislations of countries, departing from the traditional tort law that necessitates intentional wrongful act or faulty act as well as causal link with damages. Notably nuclear liability principles include no-fault liability and legal channeling of liability, requirement of limited liability and maximum limit on licensee’s financial security(except Japan, Germany, Switzerland), enforcement of mandatory insurance, as well as government’s compensation. These principles consist common elements of countries’ nuclear liability legislation, such as the U.S. Price-Anderson Act, Nuclear Liability and Compensation Law of Korea, as well as international conventions applicable to nuclear liability. However, details such as liability limits, financial security requirements, implementation framework differ from country to country. Korea’s liability and financial security limit is relatively low, compared to those of other countries, such as the United States and Japan. From this perspective, previous studies on nuclear liability law has constantly pointed that liability and financial security limit should be increased. Still an increase of liability and financial security limit will lead to a heavier insurance burden for licensee, which may cause increase in generation cost and electricity rate. This paper, therefore, focuses on how nuclear liability framework of the United States and Japan really work and differ from Korea’s case, then suggests legislative alternatives for Korea’s nuclear liability law, such as a “two-layered financial security” and “retrospective premium”. At the same time, the implication of small modular reactor are analyzed in light of future improvement of nuclear liability law.