Room for improvement at US nuclear plants-task force

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. task force examining the impact of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi disaster expects to find ways to improve safety for the 104 U.S. nuclear plants, and has not found any major problems in its first 30 days of work.

"To date, the task force has not identified any issues that undermine our confidence in the continued safety and emergency planning of U.S. plants," said Charles Miller, head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission task force, in materials prepared for a briefing on Thursday.

In the wake of the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, the task force is looking at how U.S. plants are equipped and prepared to handle disasters, such as the risks of earthquakes and floods they were designed to withstand -- as well as extreme disasters that go beyond plants' "design basis," Miller said.

The group will closely examine the back-up systems for plants to survive an extended loss of power. That was one of the most difficult problems for the Fukushima plant, where reactors and spent fuel pools overheated after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami overwhelmed the plants' emergency systems.

The plant is still not stable, and officials said on Thursday they had discovered a hole in a container housing one of its reactor cores, which is leaking water.

Inspections of U.S. plants following Japan's disaster uncovered some issues at how well prepared they are to handle attacks, and the NRC is requiring plants to certify they have equipment in place to handle extreme events and staff trained to carry out plans.

(Editing by John Picinich)