CYIL Vol. 5, 2014

THE BRUSSELS CONVENTION ON THE LIABILITY OF OPERATORS OF NUCLEAR SHIPS merchant ships. Basically, it was not expected to be commercially competitive. NS Savannah was designed as a visually impressive luxury yacht, carrying thirty air- conditioned staterooms, a dining facility for 100 passengers, a lounge, a swimming pool and a library. By many measures, the ship was a success. From 1965 to 1971, the US Maritime Administration leased NS Savannah to American Export Isbrandtsen Lines for revenue cargo service. However, many of their competitors could accommodate several times the cargo of the NS Savannah. The crew was a third larger than comparable oil-fired ships and had to receive additional training after completing all requirements for conventional maritime licenses. The operating budget had to include maintenance of a separate shore organization to negotiate port visits. Consequently, the US Maritime Administration decommissioned the NS Savannah in order to save costs in 1972. Similarly, the NS Otto Hahn was decommissioned in 1979. Her nuclear reactor and propulsion plant were removed and replaced by a conventional diesel engineroom. The NS Mutsu was decommissioned in 1992. These have been the only two areas where nuclear energy showed itself to be an appropriate means of marine propulsion: First, there is the example of nuclear- powered military submarines, which continued to be constructed both by the United States and the Soviet Union. Second, the Soviet Union proceeded to build nuclear- powered icebreakers, construed to be used for both ocean as well as river transport. However, in the years following the Conference, contemporary comments revealed that the failure of the Soviet Union to sign the Convention will not greatly affect the movements of the Soviet nuclear fleet unless they expect to enter Western harbors or territorial waters. 53 Nevertheless, Soviet nuclear-powered icebreakers have been operated exclusively in international and Soviet waters and, consequently, the Soviet Union has never felt any urgent need to facilitate liability matters in relation to these vessels at a multilateral level. Necessity to negotiate bilateral agreements in order to enter foreign harbors As pointed out above, the Convention itself does not imply the right of nuclear- powered ships of one contracting party to enter the harbors and territorial waters of another contracting party to the Convention. Furthermore, once being the contracting party to the Convention implies inter alia , that all claims should be channeled towards the operator or the operating state in cases of state-owned ships and no claims will be available towards suppliers, even if these will be from a non-contracting state. Consequently, it might appear that those states not willing to join the NS Convention, because of the inclusion of the nuclear warships, will prefer to negotiate a series of bilateral agreements with harbor states. This was obviously the case of the United States. Some of the authors already pointed out in the early 1960s that the US nuclear navy could in this way possibly obtain the same benefits as granted through the Convention. 54

53 Op. cit. sub note 11, at p. 110. 54 Op. cit. sub note 11, at p. 110.

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