nuclear-news

More mistakes found in Japan’s nuclear regulator’s radiation forecasts

Yet again, data errors discovered in radiation forecast maps, Asahi Shimbun  By JIN NISHIKAWA/ Staff Writer, 24 Nov 12 Additional errors were found on the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s maps forecasting the spread of radioactive substances from a serious nuclear accident, but the industry watchdog said these mistakes would not affect evacuation plans.

Tohoku Electric Power Co. on Nov. 22 said it discovered errors in data used to forecast the extent of radioactive substances released into the air if an accident were to occur at its Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Prefecture and Higashidori nuclear power plant in
Aomori Prefecture.

The utility classified “atmosphere stability” above the plants into 10
levels depending on wind speed and the amount of insolation, or
radiation received from the sun. That information was submitted to the
Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (JNES), an institution that
carried out computer simulations to make the forecast maps.

Of all the 17,520 weather entries for a full year at the two plants,
177 of them–108 for Onagawa and 69 for Higashidori–contained errors
in classification.

Tohoku Electric officials said an affiliate entered the incorrect data
when it developed a computer program to classify atmosphere
stability……
On Oct. 29, the NRA acknowledged additional errors on the distances
and directions of the spread of radioactive substances from Tokyo
Electric Power Co.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata
Prefecture and five other nuclear plants.

On Nov. 6 and 8, the NRA announced mistakes in the radiation forecasts
for Kyushu Electric’s Genkai plant in Saga Prefecture and the Sendai
plant in Kagoshima Prefecture.

The NRA says it plans to release the corrected maps later this month
after again checking for possible errors
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201211230062

November 25, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general