WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. nuclear regulator on Wednesday approved the launch of a safety review of U.S. nuclear reactors in response to the ongoing crisis at Japan's Fukushima plant.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted to create an agency task force made up of current and former commission experts that will provide regular updates on the status of U.S. nuclear reactors and advise whether immediate corrective action was needed.
"Examining all the available information from Japan is essential to understanding the event's implications for the United States," NRC head Gregory Jaczko said in a statement.
"We will perform a systematic and methodical review to see if there are changes that should be made to our programs and regulations to ensure protection of public health and safety," he said.
For almost two weeks the Japanese government has struggled to avert a major meltdown at the Fukushima plant, which lost power after being battered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami. The crisis has raised concerns about the safety of nuclear plants worldwide.
President Barack Obama last week requested a comprehensive review of U.S. nuclear plants while maintaining his support for atomic energy, which supplies about 20 percent of U.S. electricity.
The agency task force will undertake both a short-term and long-term analysis of what lessons can be learned from the nuclear disaster in Japan.
It will provide formal reports every 30 days for the next three months as a part of its short-term evaluation of U.S. plants, and will hold four public meetings. The first is scheduled for April 14.
Bill Borchardt, the head of operations at the NRC, laid out details of the safety review at a meeting on Monday. The proposal was formally approved on Wednesday by the five commissioners at the helm of the regulator.
(Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Paul Simao)
