Government officials and civilian experts from Northeast Asian countries attended a forum in Seoul Wednesday to discuss ways to enhance nuclear safety in the region packed with atomic power plants.
   
The symposium called "Top Regulators' Meeting plus" brought together around 200 government officials from countries including China, Japan and Russia as well as experts in the private sector, the foreign ministry said.
   
The four-session forum mainly discussed how to cope with institutional and organizational challenges to promoting nuclear safety in the region, it added.
   
The head of South Korea's nuclear safety commission called for close cooperation in enhancing nuclear safety in Northeast Asia in a bid to prevent possible accidents.
   
Lee Un-chul, chairman of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, said that promoting nuclear safety in the region is very important, given the high concentration of nuclear power plants.
  
"When it comes to nuclear safety regulations, it also means that there are many areas where regional players can promote mutual cooperation with each other," Lee said during his commemorative remarks.
   
He said that it is very important to raise capacity for emergency response and maintain coordination in the region by sharing information in a swift manner when nuclear accidents occur.
  

Nuclear safety has become a hot topic following a nuclear accident in Japan's Fukushima prefecture in 2011. Nuclear power plants in South Korea, China and Japan account for 20 percent of the global total.
   
South Korea operates 23 nuclear reactors and aims to raise the number to 34 by 2024. China is currently running 21 nuclear power plants with plans to quadruple its nuclear power output by 2020.
  
William Magwood, director-general of the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), said that discussions should be continued to develop a nuclear safety culture in Northeast Asia.
  

The forum, the second of its kind, is the expanded format of annual discussions on nuclear issues among South Korea, China and Japan, which have been held since 2008. The first closed-door forum was held in Japan in September. (Yonhap)