(1) Except as provided in this section, any person who owns, holds under license, transports, ships, stores, or disposes of nuclear material is liable, without regard to the conduct of any other person, for harm from nuclear incidents arising in connection with or resulting from such ownership, transportation, shipping, storage, or disposal.
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Terms Used In Utah Code 78B-3-603

  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Harm: means :
         (1)(a) personal injury, death, or illness, except an injury, death, or illness that is a basis for a claim under either a state or federal workmen's compensation act by an employee of a person liable pursuant to Section 78B-3-603;
         (1)(b) damage to, destruction of, or loss of the use of property other than property at the situs of and used in connection with the activity giving rise to a nuclear incident;
         (1)(c) economic loss due to:
              (1)(c)(i) damage to or loss of the use of property; or
              (1)(c)(ii) environmental degradation; or
         (1)(d) expenses reasonably incurred by the state, its political subdivisions, or the agencies of either in protecting the public health and safety and the environment from a nuclear incident or the imminent danger of a nuclear incident, including, but not limited to, precautionary evacuations, emergency response measures, and, after reasonable opportunity for performance of cleanup measures by persons liable pursuant to Section 78B-3-603, decontamination or other clean-up measures. See Utah Code 78B-3-602
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Nuclear incident: means an incident which does not arise from an act of war and involves the release of nuclear material which results in personal injury, loss of use of property, or damage due to the radioactive, toxic, explosive, or other hazardous properties of the nuclear material. See Utah Code 78B-3-602
  • Nuclear material: means radioactive material used or handled in connection with:
         (3)(a) a utilization facility or production facility licensed by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in accordance with 42 U. See Utah Code 78B-3-602
  • Person: means :
         (24)(a) an individual;
         (24)(b) an association;
         (24)(c) an institution;
         (24)(d) a corporation;
         (24)(e) a company;
         (24)(f) a trust;
         (24)(g) a limited liability company;
         (24)(h) a partnership;
         (24)(i) a political subdivision;
         (24)(j) a government office, department, division, bureau, or other body of government; and
         (24)(k) any other organization or entity. See Utah Code 68-3-12.5
  • Property: includes both real and personal property. See Utah Code 68-3-12.5
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes a state, district, or territory of the United States. See Utah Code 68-3-12.5
(2) Except as provided in this section, any person who owns, designs, constructs, operates, or maintains facilities, structures, vehicles, or equipment used for handling, transportation, shipment, storage, or disposal of nuclear material is liable, without regard to the conduct of any other person, for harm from nuclear incidents arising in connection with or resulting from such ownership, design, construction, operation, and maintenance.
(3) Liability established by this part shall only be imposed if a court of competent jurisdiction finds that:

     (3)(a) the nuclear incident which is the basis for the suit is covered by existing financial protection undertaken pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 2210; and
     (3)(b) a person who is liable under this part is a person indemnified as defined in 42 U.S.C. § 2014.
(4) Immunity of the state, its political subdivisions, or the agencies of either from suit are only waived with respect to a suit arising from a nuclear incident:

     (4)(a) in accordance with Title 63G, Chapter 7, Governmental Immunity Act of Utah; or
     (4)(b) when brought by a person suffering harm.
(5) The conduct of the person suffering harm is not a defense to liability, except that this section does not preclude any defense based on:

     (5)(a) the claimant’s knowing failure to mitigate damages related to any injury or damage to the claimant or the claimant’s property; or
     (5)(b) an incident involving nuclear material that is knowingly and wrongfully caused by the claimant.
(6) A person may not collect punitive or exemplary damages under this part.

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