Punted again, as the Japanese have just raised their assessment of the Fukushima incident to the highest level of 'major accident'. The only such incident previously was Chernobyl.
You do wonder how much people are being told, and when, in this instance. The rise is from a level '5' to a level '7' but, as with earthquakes the nuclear events scale is a
logarithmic one, that is each increase represents an accident
ten times as bad as the level below.
According to the
BBC
However, a nuclear safety agency spokesman told reporters the leaks were still small compared to those at the plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union.
"In terms of volume of radioactive materials released, our estimate shows it is about 10% of what was released by Chernobyl," he said.
"Still small", maybe, but even 10% of the radioactivity released at Chernobyl is vastly more than has been suggested previously in regard of Fukushima. And, of course, Japan is far more densely populated than the equivalent area around Chernobyl. imsad