Japan's Fukushima leak rate rises to level 3
Iran Press TV
Wed Aug 28, 2013 9:15AM GMT
Japan’s nuclear regulator has upgraded the level of a radioactive water leak at the country’s Fukushima nuclear power plant to a “serious incident,” or level 3, on an international scale.
Earlier, the Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) had given a level-1 rating to the leak of some 300 tons of radioactive water from a storage camp at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
On August 21, the NRA proposed raising the severity rating of the leak to level three, according to the UN’s International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) and changed the level of the leak after consulting with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The agency explained that level-three cases on the INES seven-point scale are considered “serious incidents” with “exposure in excess of ten times the statutory annual limit for workers.”
This is considered Japan’s first warning on INES since the meltdown of three reactors at Fukushima in 2011, which resulted in radioactive water getting leaked into the sea.
The Fukushima plant was damaged in a mega-earthquake followed by a tsunami on March 11, 2011.
A report released by a Japanese parliamentary panel later said the incident at the Fukushima nuclear plant was not only due to the tsunami, but also a “man-made disaster.”
The report criticized the “government, regulatory authorities and Tokyo Electric Power” for being devoid of “a sense of responsibility to protect people’s lives and society.”
MM/PR/HJL
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