Japan raises nuclear accident level to 7, as same as Chernobyl disaster

The Japanese government on Tuesday raised the accident level at a damaged nuclear power plant to 7, the worst on an international scale, from the current 5.

Level 7 had only been applied previously to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine.

The accident level was raised after the government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency determined that the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has been releasing massive amounts of radioactive materials, which are posing threats to human health and the environment over a wide area, the public broadcaster NHK reported The agency gauged the level with the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES).

The six—reactor nuclear plant, located 250 km north-east of Tokyo was damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which shut down its cooling systems, leading to partial meltdowns, explosions, fires and radiation releases.

The previous INES level of 5, declared in mid-March, was the same as for the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in the United States.

'Radiation level might exceed Chernobyl'

The amount of radiation leaking from a damaged Japanese nuclear power station might exceed that of the Chernobyl disaster, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the plant’s operator, said Tuesday.

If the plant continued to spew radioactive material, it would be possible that the amount might surpass that of the 1986 disaster in Ukraine, TEPCO official Junichi Matsumoto said.

At the moment, however, the radiation releases are at 10 per cent of the levels emitted from the Chernobyl plant, the government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.