Did the earthquake with a magnitude of MJMA 7.6 (Mw 7.5) that occurred in Noto, Japan, on January 1, 2024, result in the malfunctioning of all the radiation monitoring posts situated around the Shiga nuclear power plant in Ishikawa prefecture? No, that's not true: There are over 100 radiation monitoring posts surrounding the nuclear power plant, and only a few experienced data gaps. Some of these have already been replaced and are back in operation. There have been no indications of radioactive material beyond the confines of the nuclear facilities.
The claim appeared in a TikTok video (archived here) which was published on January 17, 2024. Translated from Japanese into English by Lead Stories staff, the video states:
The Shiga nuclear power plant sustained considerable damage, but there is no news about it...
...the government is trying to keep the public's attention away from the actual situation in Noto....[Time Code 01:57]...and the monitoring posts around the Shiga nuclear power plant are almost completely destroyed...
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Jan 18 00:10:52 2024 UTC)
On the day of the Noto earthquake, January 1, 2024, the Nuclear Regulation Authority's emergency information webpage promptly published relevant updates. The information (archived here) indicated that 11 monitoring posts had data gaps, while data from two monitoring posts had been successfully recovered.
The Radiation Monitoring Information Sharing and Publication System (archived here) shows how many monitoring posts are in each prefecture. In Ishikawa, where the Shiga nuclear power plant is, there are more than 100 monitoring posts.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority also reported on X on January 1, 2024 (archived here), that there were no irregularities in the values recorded by the monitoring posts.
