Japan Nuclear Crisis Update – Disaster gets Level 7 highest rating

By Victoria Brown on April 12, 2011
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Digital News Report

Digital New Report – The Fukushima Nuclear crisis is still ongoing and now it has been raised to a level 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) by the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA). Level 7 is the highest and most serious rating and is considered a “Major Accident”. IAEA said that only Chernobyl and now Fukushima nuclear accidents have been assigned the INES Level 7 rating.

A level 7 rating is described by the INES as “A major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects requiring implementation of planned and extended countermeasures.”

Prior to the level 7 rating the Nuclear Units 1, 2, and 3 were rated at INES Level 5. The nuclear Unit 4 remains at an INES Level 3 rating.

The reason for the increased rating to a INES Level 7 was due to the amount of the radioactivity that was released into the environment. Comparatively, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that the amount of radioactivity released at the Japan nuclear facility was 10 percent of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. Chernobyl also was rated the highest INES Level 7.

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