Chavan was questioned as to whether in the future any private nuclear operators would be allowed in the country.
To this, he said, "it (the law) has to be amended by Parliament if private players are allowed. I cannot predict what happens later".
Explaining the clauses of the Bill, he said, it will not put any cap on criminal liability, but only fix the civilian liability at around Rs 500 crore.
He said that India cannot do nuclear trade with any country unless a liability regime or a national law is passed.
"There cannot be any nuclear trade".
The minister added that there was not a single country apart from India which was not part of a convention.
Fielding questions on why India was keen on joining the Vienna convention with the US and not any other international treaty, he said, "we are going to a much better convention which would ensure that only Indian courts can adjudicate and there is much better compensation given".
On why the compensation cap of Rs 500 crore was so less, Chavan said in the beginning even in the US the compensation was very low, but as the nuclear industry grew, the amount also kept on growing.
"We are not inviting investments. It is only about nuclear trade. There is no secret agenda. No agenda to help anybody. We just want to help ourselves," he added.
He said that there were also some suggestions of raising the money from future consumers of nuclear power at the rate of five paise per unit.
Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) member Dipankar Mukherjee and Prasad, however, asked the government to withdraw the Bill, alleging that it was being passed under US pressure.
"We have coal for the next 300 years. Why do we need to have nuclear energy?" Prasad asked.
Chavan replied that the country has to take a decision on the nuclear Bill and if we do not pass it India cannot get clean nuclear energy.