H-191                _______________________________________________

 

                                                     HOUSE BILL NO. 54

                        _______________________________________________

 

State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1985 Regular Session

 

By Representatives Armstrong, D. Nelson, Van Luven, Jacobsen, Nealey, Long, Sutherland, Lundquist, Gallagher and Wang

 

 

Read first time 1/17/85 and referred to Committee on Energy & Utilities.

 

 


AN ACT Relating to tort liability; and adding new sections to chapter 4.24 RCW.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

 

          NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 4.24 RCW to read as follows:

          Unless the context clearly requires otherwise the following definitions apply throughout section 2 of this act:

          (1) "Defense wastes" means highly radioactive materials produced by the atomic energy defense activities of the United States.

          (2) "High-level radioactive wastes" means highly radioactive materials including:

          (a) Defense wastes;

          (b) Spent nuclear fuels;

          (c) The highly radioactive material resulting  from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel including liquid wastes produced directly in reprocessing and any solid materials derived from these liquid wastes containing fission products; and

          (d) Other highly radioactive material that the United States nuclear regulatory commission, or its successor agency, determines by rule requires permanent isolation.

          (3) "Nuclear incident" means any occurrence within this state causing, within or without this state, bodily injury, sickness, disease or death; loss or damage to property; or loss of use of property arising out of the resultant radioactive, toxic, explosive, or other hazardous properties of high-level radioactive wastes being stored in or being transported to or from a waste repository in this state.

          (4) "Operator" means the entity or entities that have been given responsibility for constructing, operating, and monitoring waste repositories by congress and may include the United States and its federal agencies.

          (5) "Spent nuclear fuel" means fuel that has been withdrawn from a nuclear reactor following irradiation, the constituent elements of which have not been separated by reprocessing.

          (6) "Waste repository" means any system which is intended or may be used for the disposal or storage of high-level radioactive waste including permanent disposal systems, interim storage systems, monitored retrievable storage systems, defense waste storage systems, test and evaluation facilities, or similar systems.

 

          NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2.  A new section is added to chapter 4.24 RCW to read as follows:

          (1) Operators are liable for failure to exercise ordinary and reasonable care to protect persons and property subject to injury in nuclear incidents.  In addition, operators are liable for operational expenses and emergency purchases incurred  by local or state governments in responding to nuclear incidents.

          (2) If a nuclear incident occurs, there is a presumption that the operator of a waste repository was negligent in constructing, operating, or monitoring the waste repository and that the operator was an actual cause of the nuclear incident.  The presumption may be rebutted by a clear and convincing showing by the operator that the nuclear incident was not the result of the operator's negligence and that the operator's negligence was not an actual cause of the nuclear incident.

          (3) This section does not limit the recovery of parties injured by a nuclear incident against the operators of a waste repository under theories of negligence in selecting contractors, failure to retain adequate controls over the waste repository, vicarious liability for contractors, failure to take reasonable precautionary measures with respect to inherently dangerous activities, and other negligence theories.  This section does not limit the recovery of parties injured by a nuclear incident against parties other than operators of a waste facility.