TOKYO —
Japan’s system for predicting the volume of radioactive materials to be released into the environment failed in the wake of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant due to the power supply cut following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, sources close to the matter said Monday.
The malfunction of the Emergency Response Support System, or ERSS, coupled with the insufficiency of the System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information, or SPEEDI, designed to predict the dispersal of radioactive materials based on forecasts by ERSS, is likely to have delayed the effective evacuation of residents in Fukushima Prefecture.
The systems’ failure casts doubt on the government’s disaster-prevention policy, which said that the systems should be used to analyze and predict the amount and spread of radioactive material into the environment during a nuclear crisis. The two systems have cost around 28 billion yen in total for their development and maintenance.
The ERSS is designed to collect data about the state of the nuclear reactors, such as pressure and temperature, from remote locations and analyze the expected development of a nuclear accident to predict the amount of radioactive materials to be released into the air.
The ERSS, which is managed by the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization under the supervision of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, had never been used since its start of development in 1987, as accidents that had occurred in the past were less serious than the system’s standard for activation.
The system was put to the test for its ability this time, but proved useless as the twin disaster was larger than initially envisioned. It still remains unable to collect data from the No. 1 to 5 reactors at the crippled Fukushima plant.
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Japan’s system for predicting the volume of radioactive materials to be released into the environment failed in the wake of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant due to the power supply cut following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, sources close to the matter said Monday.
The malfunction of the Emergency Response Support System, or ERSS, coupled with the insufficiency of the System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information, or SPEEDI, designed to predict the dispersal of radioactive materials based on forecasts by ERSS, is likely to have delayed the effective evacuation of residents in Fukushima Prefecture.
The systems’ failure casts doubt on the government’s disaster-prevention policy, which said that the systems should be used to analyze and predict the amount and spread of radioactive material into the environment during a nuclear crisis. The two systems have cost around 28 billion yen in total for their development and maintenance.
The ERSS is designed to collect data about the state of the nuclear reactors, such as pressure and temperature, from remote locations and analyze the expected development of a nuclear accident to predict the amount of radioactive materials to be released into the air.
The ERSS, which is managed by the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization under the supervision of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, had never been used since its start of development in 1987, as accidents that had occurred in the past were less serious than the system’s standard for activation.
The system was put to the test for its ability this time, but proved useless as the twin disaster was larger than initially envisioned. It still remains unable to collect data from the No. 1 to 5 reactors at the crippled Fukushima plant.
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