Source: PDI
TOKYO—Japan raised the severity level of the crisis at its crippled nuclear plant on Tuesday to rank it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing cumulative radiation leaks contaminating the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater.
Japanese nuclear regulators said the rating was being raised from 5 to 7—the highest level on an international scale overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—after new assessments of radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant since it was disabled by the March 11 tsunami.
The new ranking signifies a “major accident” that includes widespread effects on the environment and health, according to the Vienna-based IAEA.
However, Japanese officials have played down any health effects so far. They said leaks from the Fukushima plant amount to a tenth of the radiation emitted in the Chernobyl disaster, while acknowledging they eventually could exceed Chernobyl’s emissions if the crisis continues.
“This reconfirms that this is an extremely major disaster. We are very sorry to the public, people living near the nuclear complex and the international community for causing such a serious accident,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yuki Edano.
But Edano told reporters there was no “direct health damage” so far from the crisis. “The accident itself is really serious, but we have set our priority so as not to cause health damage.”
Concern in China
China said on Tuesday it was still concerned about Japan’s nuclear calamity.
“We hope that the measures taken by Japan will ease the current situation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei told a regular news conference. “We hope that the Japanese side will provide swift, comprehensive and accurate information,” Hong said, restating China’s position.
China has so far been sympathetic rather than angry, though it and South Korea have criticized the plant operator’s decision to pump radioactive water into the sea, a process it has now stopped.
Japanese officials on Monday added five communities to a list of places people should leave to avoid long-term radiation exposure. A 20-kilometer radius already had been cleared around the plant.
Continued aftershocks following the 9.0-magnitude megaquake on March 11 have impeded work in stabilizing the Fukushima plant—the latest a 6.3-magnitude one on Tuesday that killed three people and prompted plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) to temporarily pull back workers.
Widespread radiation leaks
Officials from Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said that the cumulative amount of radioactive particles released into the atmosphere since the incident had reached levels that apply to a Level 7 incident. Other factors included damage to the plant’s buildings and accumulated radiation levels for its workers.
“We have upgraded the severity level to 7 as the impact of radiation leaks has been widespread from the air, vegetables, tap water to the ocean,” NISA official Minoru Oogoda said.
The revision was based on cross-checking and assessments of data on leaks of radioactive iodine-131 and cesium-137, NISA spokesperson Hidehiko Nishiyama said.
“We have refrained from making announcements until we have reliable data,” Nishiyama said. “The announcement is being made now because it became possible to look at and check the accumulated data assessed in two different ways,” he said, referring to measurements from NISA and Japan’s Nuclear Security Council.
‘Deeply apologize’
Nishiyama noted that unlike in Chernobyl there have been no explosions of reactor cores at the Dai-ichi plant, although there were hydrogen explosions.
“In that sense, this situation is totally different from Chernobyl,” he said.
He said the amount of radiation leaking from the Dai-ichi plant was around 10 percent of the Chernobyl accident.
However, TEPCO is still estimating the total amount of radioactive material that could be released, company spokesperson Junichi Matsumoto said.
He acknowledged that, if leaks continue, the amount of radioactivity released might eventually exceed the amount emitted by Chernobyl.
The company, under fire for its handling of the accident and its disaster preparedness before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, issued yet another apology on Tuesday.
“We humbly accept this. We deeply apologize for causing tremendous trouble to those who live near the nuclear complex and people in the prefecture,” TEPCO spokesperson Naoki Tsunoda said.
Chernobyl disaster
In Chernobyl, in the Ukraine, a reactor exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing a cloud of radiation over much of the Northern Hemisphere. A zone about 30 km around the plant was declared uninhabitable, although some plant workers still live there for short periods and a few hundred other people have returned despite government encouragement to stay away.
In 2005, the Chernobyl Forum—a group comprising the IAEA and several other UN groups—said fewer than 50 deaths could be confirmed as being connected to Chernobyl. It also said the number of radiation-related deaths among the 600,000 people who helped deal with the aftermath of the accident would ultimately be around 4,000.
The UN health agency, however, has said about 9,300 people are likely to die of cancers caused by radiation. Some groups, including Greenpeace, have put the numbers 10 times higher.
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TOKYO—Japan raised the severity level of the crisis at its crippled nuclear plant on Tuesday to rank it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing cumulative radiation leaks contaminating the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater.
Japanese nuclear regulators said the rating was being raised from 5 to 7—the highest level on an international scale overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—after new assessments of radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant since it was disabled by the March 11 tsunami.
The new ranking signifies a “major accident” that includes widespread effects on the environment and health, according to the Vienna-based IAEA.
However, Japanese officials have played down any health effects so far. They said leaks from the Fukushima plant amount to a tenth of the radiation emitted in the Chernobyl disaster, while acknowledging they eventually could exceed Chernobyl’s emissions if the crisis continues.
“This reconfirms that this is an extremely major disaster. We are very sorry to the public, people living near the nuclear complex and the international community for causing such a serious accident,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yuki Edano.
But Edano told reporters there was no “direct health damage” so far from the crisis. “The accident itself is really serious, but we have set our priority so as not to cause health damage.”
Concern in China
China said on Tuesday it was still concerned about Japan’s nuclear calamity.
“We hope that the measures taken by Japan will ease the current situation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei told a regular news conference. “We hope that the Japanese side will provide swift, comprehensive and accurate information,” Hong said, restating China’s position.
China has so far been sympathetic rather than angry, though it and South Korea have criticized the plant operator’s decision to pump radioactive water into the sea, a process it has now stopped.
Japanese officials on Monday added five communities to a list of places people should leave to avoid long-term radiation exposure. A 20-kilometer radius already had been cleared around the plant.
Continued aftershocks following the 9.0-magnitude megaquake on March 11 have impeded work in stabilizing the Fukushima plant—the latest a 6.3-magnitude one on Tuesday that killed three people and prompted plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) to temporarily pull back workers.
Widespread radiation leaks
Officials from Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said that the cumulative amount of radioactive particles released into the atmosphere since the incident had reached levels that apply to a Level 7 incident. Other factors included damage to the plant’s buildings and accumulated radiation levels for its workers.
“We have upgraded the severity level to 7 as the impact of radiation leaks has been widespread from the air, vegetables, tap water to the ocean,” NISA official Minoru Oogoda said.
The revision was based on cross-checking and assessments of data on leaks of radioactive iodine-131 and cesium-137, NISA spokesperson Hidehiko Nishiyama said.
“We have refrained from making announcements until we have reliable data,” Nishiyama said. “The announcement is being made now because it became possible to look at and check the accumulated data assessed in two different ways,” he said, referring to measurements from NISA and Japan’s Nuclear Security Council.
‘Deeply apologize’
Nishiyama noted that unlike in Chernobyl there have been no explosions of reactor cores at the Dai-ichi plant, although there were hydrogen explosions.
“In that sense, this situation is totally different from Chernobyl,” he said.
He said the amount of radiation leaking from the Dai-ichi plant was around 10 percent of the Chernobyl accident.
However, TEPCO is still estimating the total amount of radioactive material that could be released, company spokesperson Junichi Matsumoto said.
He acknowledged that, if leaks continue, the amount of radioactivity released might eventually exceed the amount emitted by Chernobyl.
The company, under fire for its handling of the accident and its disaster preparedness before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, issued yet another apology on Tuesday.
“We humbly accept this. We deeply apologize for causing tremendous trouble to those who live near the nuclear complex and people in the prefecture,” TEPCO spokesperson Naoki Tsunoda said.
Chernobyl disaster
In Chernobyl, in the Ukraine, a reactor exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing a cloud of radiation over much of the Northern Hemisphere. A zone about 30 km around the plant was declared uninhabitable, although some plant workers still live there for short periods and a few hundred other people have returned despite government encouragement to stay away.
In 2005, the Chernobyl Forum—a group comprising the IAEA and several other UN groups—said fewer than 50 deaths could be confirmed as being connected to Chernobyl. It also said the number of radiation-related deaths among the 600,000 people who helped deal with the aftermath of the accident would ultimately be around 4,000.
The UN health agency, however, has said about 9,300 people are likely to die of cancers caused by radiation. Some groups, including Greenpeace, have put the numbers 10 times higher.
