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The treaty, known as the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage,assigns accident liability to plant operators rather than equipment and technology vendors,Moniz said in a Nov. 2 interview in Tokyo. The treaty includes setting up a fund for victims of nuclear accidents and a standard for compensation claims

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trade Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and other officials showed an “eagerness” during meetings last week for expertise from abroad to decommission the Fukushima plant, Moniz said. Such help will be easier to secure once Japan ratifies the treaty, he said.

“As one gets into the real work, then these liability conventions become quite important,” Moniz said. “Certainly Prime Minster Abe and Minster Motegi both emphasize that the importance of moving on this in 2014 is to a large extent driven by their openness and their desire to get as much international help as they can.”

Moniz was in Japan to discuss cooperation on the Fukushima cleanup and the country’s plans to ratify the treaty………

Under the pact, a company such a Irvine, California-based Kurion Inc., which possesses technology for removing the radioactive isotope tritium from contaminated water, could deploy its technology at the Fukushima plant, Moniz said.

Liability would rest with Tepco, as the plant’s operator is known, he said……….

While Tepco has had treatment systems in place for removing the contaminant cesium since shortly after the March 2011 disaster at the plant and is testing a filter to remove the radioactive element strontium, it has no means of removing tritium.

Other companies that could assist Tepco are builders that have worked at U.S. nuclear sites and specialists in cleaning groundwater and controlling its flow, Moniz said without identifying particular businesses.

Moniz said the liability pact has so far not been needed by foreign companies because there’s been little direct engagement between such businesses and Tepco, although some U.S. entities have helped the utility in a consultative role…….

“With the openness, I would say the eagerness, expressed by the Prime Minister and by a variety of other government officials to have international help, we see our laboratories certainly continuing to contribute and we see our companies being enabled to come in as well,” Moniz said. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-03/u-s-says-japan-signing-liability-pact-would-aid-nuclear-cleanup.html