Japan raises nuclear crisis to maximum level 7

[News_Editor]

Japan raises nuclear crisis to maximum level 7

2011-04-12 19:29:59 GMT+7 (ICT)

TOKYO (BNO NEWS) -- Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency on Tuesday upgraded the severity level in the country's ongoing nuclear crisis from an international scale level 5 to a level 7, matching 1986's Chernobyl crisis.

According to the agency, the evaluation was based on an estimated amount of radioactive material released into the external environment, but underlined that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crisis has released about 10 percent of that from the Chernobyl incident.

However, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) admitted that the radiation leakage could eventually surpass that from the former Soviet nuclear plant.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told Kyodo news agency that the government was "sorry to Fukushima residents, the Japanese people and the international community," regarding the situation. Meanwhile, Tepco also made a public apology for being unable to stop the radiation leakage.

According to the International Nuclear Event Scale, the release of over tens of thousands of terabecquerels of radioactive iodine 131 corresponds to a level 7 accident. While one terabecquerel equals 1 trillion becquerels, the plant's No. 1 to No. 3 nuclear reactors is estimated to have released between 370,000 and 630,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials into the environment.

The evacuation zone previously set by the government of 20 kilometers (12.42 miles) from the plant has not yet been expanded.

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