Fabricated Seismic Data Halts Restarts

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority suspended the safety screening for two Hamaoka reactors after Chubu Electric admitted using falsified seismic data to understate earthquake risk. The admission forces re‑validation from scratch, undermines public trust in restart plans, and could delay national decarbonization and energy‑security timelines. — A single instance of manipulated engineering data can derail national nuclear policy, highlight regulatory capture risks, and force urgent changes in audit, whistleblower protection, and engineering provenance rules.