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Japan Raises Nuclear Accident Severity to Highest Level

   VOA News  April 11, 2011
   The heavily damaged Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.

Photo: AP

   The heavily damaged Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.

   Japan's nuclear safety agency has decided to raise the crisis level of
   a crippled nuclear power plant accident from five to seven, the highest
   on the international scale.
   Japanese news media reported Tuesday that the Nuclear and Industrial
   Safety Agency made the decision after determining that the radioactive
   material leaking from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant for several
   hours after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster reached a
   maximum severity level. They said the radioactive leakage has since
   declined.
   Yet another fire broke out at the troubled plant Tuesday, but reports
   say it was soon put out.
   The government also expanded an evacuation zone around the Fukushima
   plant because of the high-level of radiation spreading in the region
   since last month's tsunami.
   Severe aftershocks that rattled northeastern Japan Monday killed two
   people and caused a temporary loss of power at the Fukushima plant.
   Monday's aftershocks struck just hours after people across Japan bowed
   their heads in silence to mark the one-month anniversary of the
   disaster that hit Japan's northeastern coast, killing thousands and
   triggering the nuclear crisis.
   More than 13,000 bodies have been recovered and more than 14,000 remain
   missing, many still lying under the rubble or washed out to sea.
   Officials at Japan's nuclear safety agency said workers were
   temporarily evacuated Monday from the Fukushima nuclear plant, which
   has been leaking radiation since the March 11 quake. They said outside
   electrical power to three of the plant's units was cut off, disrupting
   the injection of cooling water into the reactor cores, but that the
   electricity was restored after less than an hour. The officials said
   they had detected no change in radiation levels.
   Authorities ordered residents from several towns and communities
   outside the 20-kilometer evacuation zone around the Fukushima plant to
   be prepared to leave at short notice. Those who are ill or have small
   children were advised to leave the zone in advance of any emergency. It
   was not immediately clear how many residents would be affected by the
   new order.
   The 1986 Chernobyl power plant meltdown in the former Soviet Union was
   ranked level seven on the international nuclear event scale, compared
   to the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in the United States which was
   level five.

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