Japan will consider setting up a nuclear safety training institute to improve the quality of human resources involved in nuclear safety, according to an updated government report on the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The report, which will be submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency ahead of its general conference later in the month, also said work to contain the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is proceeding steadily, but "several more months" are needed to bring damaged reactors to a state known as "cold shutdown."

At the outset of a government meeting on Sunday to endorse the report, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said that the fight to contain the nuclear crisis is "still halfway."

In an outline of the report, to be presented at a side event of the IAEA general conference on Sept. 19, the government stressed the "vital importance" of training more nuclear safety personnel to respond to another nuclear crisis, while referring to an idea to establish what it tentatively called an International Nuclear Safety Training Institute.

The institute, the creation of which should be deliberated by a new government nuclear safety regulatory body to be established by next April, would seek to improve the quality of nuclear regulators within Japan and may also invite people from abroad, the report and a government official said.

The report also touched on moves inside the government to revamp its nuclear regulatory system, in which public confidence was shaken by its failure to prevent the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Major criticism focused on problems caused by having regulators under the industry ministry, which also promotes nuclear power. In response, the government decided last month to separate the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency from the ministry by creating a new nuclear regulatory body under the Environment Ministry by April next year.

Hit by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami on March 11, the Fukushima nuclear plant lost nearly all its power sources, and consequently the ability to cool the reactors and spent fuel pools at the Nos. 1 to 4 units. As a result, temperatures soared along with a build-up of hydrogen gas, leading to catastrophic explosions which badly damaged three of the four reactor buildings and the release of a large amount of radioactive material in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

Workers have now installed a new water circulation system to cool the crippled reactors, marking some progress in bringing the plant to a stable condition.

The government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. seek to achieve a cold shutdown of the plant by January at the latest.