Some scientists and nuclear regulators butted heads this morning during the first official meeting of a recently formed committee tasked with researching the lessons learned from last year's Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan.

Dave Lochbaum, director of the nuclear safety project at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said U.S. nuclear plants are not designed to handle a major natural disaster like the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the Japanese plant last year.

But officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission pointed to findings in their organization's recently published Near-Term Task Force report that reviewed nuclear plant safety and found "no imminent risk from continued operation and licensing activities" and said that a "similar sequence of events in the U.S. is unlikely" to occur.

Still, they said measures to improve nuclear safety could always be taken.

The comments came during this morning's first meeting of a new National Academy of Sciences committee -- mandated by Congress and funded through NRC -- that was formed last month to research what the United States can learn from the nuclear meltdown and how it can improve the safety and security of its nuclear plants.

This morning's meeting focused on gathering data and research from NRC, the Nuclear Energy Institute and the Union of Concerned Scientists, among others, as the committee looks to put together a report that will look at several issues stemming from the Fukushima disaster.

Norman Neureiter, senior adviser to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, chairs the 22-member committee, which is composed largely of university professors. According to Neureiter, the committee cannot make policy recommendations, only technical suggestions.

The study, which is due in 2014, will look at four key points: the causes of the Fukushima accident as it relates to the performance of safety systems; re-evaluating the conclusions of previous NAS studies; ways to improve commercial nuclear plant safety; and identifying and applying design basis events.

Other topics discussed at this morning's meeting included disaster role-playing, the effectiveness of emergency response, managing spent fuel pool instrumentation in nuclear plants and handling station blackouts.

Prasad Kadambi, a nuclear safety consultant and former NRC researcher who spoke when the floor was opened for public comment, said he hoped the committee would also take into account the work of standard-developing organizations.

"I believe it is important you also consider the international and national codes and standards that are just as much a part of the safety issues," Kadambi said.