Washington (Platts)--6Dec2012/613 pm EST/2313 GMT

The International Atomic Energy Agency's post-Fukushima Action Plan on Nuclear Safety will require additional funding and expertise if the plan is to achieve its objectives, the agency's director-general, Yukiya Amano, said Thursday.

The action plan was adopted by a ministerial conference on nuclear safety convened by Amano in June 2011, three months after the accident that destroyed four of six reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant.

Full implementation of the plan is a "priority" for the IAEA, but peer review missions to examine safety in countries with nuclear power programs, reviews of their safety standards, and international expert meetings will require additional personnel and financial resources, Amano said in response to a question during his remarks at an event Thursday at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

So far, these activities have "mainly" been funded by contributions from Japan, but that money is "running out," Amano said.

Also, additional support is needed from other countries because the agency "cannot use Japanese funds" for activities such as preparing reports on the Fukushima accident, as that would represent "a conflict of interest," he said.

Some countries have made available nuclear power experts, including personnel from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to work on implementing the plan, Amano said. Technical expertise in nuclear power, however, is "a very scarce resource that is in demand everywhere," and the IAEA competes for such experts with private industry, he said.

Amano appealed to all countries to provide more contributions.

The action plan comprises 12 areas for "main actions": safety assessments, IAEA peer reviews, emergency preparedness and response, national regulatory bodies, operating organizations, IAEA safety standards, international legal framework, member states embarking on a nuclear power program, education and training -- known as "capacity building," radiation protection, communication and information, and research and development.

Gustavo Caruso, special coordinator for the agency's nuclear safety action team, said in an interview in July that the IAEA has, as called for by the action plan, organized two topical "international expert meetings," or IEM, in Vienna to gather knowledge about the accident and its lessons. The first, in March, covered nuclear reactor and spent fuel pool safety; the second, in June, covered transparency and communicating in the event of a nuclear or radiological emergency.

A third IEM, on protecting against earthquakes and tsunamis, was held in September in Vienna. A fourth will be held in early 2013, covering decommissioning and remediation after a nuclear accident, Caruso said.

The special meetings are designed to generate conclusions that can be fed into the action plan to determine "the next steps," Caruso said.

He said further IEMs are already planned on regulatory effectiveness, human and organizational factors, protection of people and the environment, and "probably" on the international legal framework.

--Steven Dolley, steven_dolley@platts.com --Ann MacLachlan, ann_maclachlan@platts.com --Edited by Lisa Miller, lisa_miller@platts.com