“It turns out that scientists underestimated the speed with which the debris would reach the Western coast of North America.”
What does this say about the climate models that incorporate ocean currents?
Well, in fairness, not everything is carried at the same speed... Also, the last time anything like this happened (Chernobyl), the debris was picked up by the wind over land, which is not quite the same as flowing through ocean currents. Climate models, on the other hand, are based on many observations over long periods of time. (Climate change models are something else. Europe is supposed to be cooling down but we've had a terrifically mild autumn here in Paris.)
But you are correct that scientists are not infallible. A few of them (i.e., Richard Dawkins) get hung up on the power of science. Most of them are more modest about their capacity to correctly interpret novel situations/findings/et c. before lots of corroborative data is available. Unfortunately, the journalists seem to take any leaning in one direction as a sign that "scientists believe X."