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The new Nuclear Regulation Authority has released a formal apology for releasing misleading information on predicted nuclear fallout based on simulated disasters at six of Japan's nuclear power plants.
The statement follows the publication of the results of an agency simulation into the possible effects of nuclear disasters at each of Japan's 16 nuclear power plants. In six of those cases, the published results were wrong due to data input errors, said the agency.
According to an agency press release, the information published pertaining to the direction of the dispersal of nuclear radiation following meltdowns at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa (Niigata), Shika (Ishikawa), Tsuruga (Fukui), Genkai (Saga), Sendai (Kagoshima) and the Tokai Daini plant (Ibaraki) was incorrect.
According to the amended data, a nuclear disaster at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant is predicted to result in nuclear radiation exceeding 100 millisieverts reaching areas as far east as Nagaoka in Niigata Prefecture, around 40 km away. The new simulation exceeds the 30-km radius evacuation zone guidelines currently being drawn up by the agency.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority has announced plans to propose disaster-mitigation guidelines including a recommendation that 30-km emergency zones be established near nuclear facilities, TV Asahi reported. Nuclear safety campaigners are now urging local governments to widen these emergency zones in response to the new data.
"We apologize for any confusion caused to local governments by the erroneous data," the agency said in a statement.
© Japan Today
8 Comments
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nath
I hope the simulation thing is not meant to lead to restarting remaining nuke reactors on false claims of safety! I hope we shall not hear things like " we have now finished with the accurate simulations and have now set up emergency centres to ensure your safety in case of nuke accident". I think people now don't even want anything to do with nuke energy... The best news people want tp hear is closure of nuke plants and heavy investment into alternative sources of energy....
warispeace
A whole lotta fudging going on...
herefornow
LOL. Almost 40% of the results were wrong. And people wonder why Japanese folks are nervous about nuclear power. Maybe its because they know there are a bunch of clowns in these agencies.
Disillusioned
Ha ha! "We are sorry, but you are toast!" We'll done guys. Data input errors? Are they serious? Maybe they should let some elementary school kids take over. At least they can copy data. Keep up the bad work!
Steve Mcgrew
it's just a matter of time before japan becomes a nuclear wasteland. The existing nuclear plants are aging and there is talk of building even more of plants. Nuclear generation is not cost effective,tally up yhe sum of yen that will be spent removing the currently damaged plants,ware water,spent fuel storage, and the cost of cleaning up.the soil,ground water and sea....(If that can even be accomplished). The plants will continue to age and sooner or later another catostrophic failure will take place. The entire world needs to find a better solution than nuclear generation, how many more disasters will it take before we learn from our mistake.