Japan's nuke fallout forecasts found to be flawed

Projections riddled with mistakes.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority was alarmed to uncover this and will scrutinize all simulations for the potential spread of radioactive materials from atomic power plants.

"We would like to be sure that there will be no more errors, so the simulations are being thoroughly checked again," said NRA spokesman Hideka Morimoto.

The NRA said errors were found in wind direction data for Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Genkai power plant in Saga Prefecture and Sendai plant in Kagoshima Prefecture.

The fallout simulations are based on a severe accident similar to the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 plant. The projections indicate what areas would experience fallout of up to 100 millisieverts of radiation in the first seven days of such a crisis.

The NRA planned to disclose the corrected projections Thursday but canceled after the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization, the body that drafted the simulations, announced there may be further data-input errors in the corrected version.

Morimoto said the NRA's secretariat has questioned the capability of the JNES team that drafted the projections, as inputting data should be a very basic task. It ordered the JNES to thoroughly review all of the projections in collaboration with the NRA.

He added it was still unclear when the NRA will be able to release the corrected results.

The projections were drafted based on annual meteorological data, including prevailing wind directions and speeds and rainfall at every nuclear plant in Japan.

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