Japan to raise nuke accident severity level to 7 (The highest)

[thewiseguy]

BULLETIN: Japan to raise nuke accident severity level to highest 7 from 5: sources
TOKYO, April 12, Kyodo

Japan has decided to raise the severity level of the accident at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to 7, the worst on an international scale, from the current 5, government sources said Tuesday.

==Kyodo

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/84756.html

The Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan released a preliminary calculation Monday saying that the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had been releasing up to 10,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials per hour at some point after a massive quake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan on March 11.

The disclosure prompted the government to consider raising the accident's severity level to 7, the worst on an international scale, from the current 5, government sources said. The level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale has only been applied to the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe.

The current provisional evaluation of 5 is at the same level as the Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979.

According to an evaluation by the INES, level 7 accidents correspond with a release into the external environment radioactive materials equal to more than tens of thousands terabecquerels of radioactive iodine 131. One terabecquerel equals 1 trillion becquerels.

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/84721.html

Japan is also expanding the evacuation zone and there is news that harmful radiation levels are detected at locations outside the new expanded zone! Add to that a fire that just broke out in the Fukushima plant but was soon extinguished.

For reference the Chernobyl incident released 1.8 million terabecquerels of radioactive materials in total.

[spin]

1. I suspect the Japanese may have been trying to save face...

that's a counterproductive approach to a very serious situation.

Let's hope they have given up on this tactic.

[thewiseguy]

3. You are right but may be the have just began to be more honest

I am wondering what transpired this change of attitude.

[spin]

6. Possibly because the situation is much worse than even they thought.

I hope I'm wrong.

[Raschel]

24. Maybe because they can't hide the fact that the plant went tits up, and there's no fixing it.

[Pharaoh]

2. At what point

do we in the US decide to take iodine?

What are the ramifications for the planet?

The MSN won't tell us.

[thewiseguy]

4. Japan will brief the G 20 on the nuclear accident according to their finance minister

Sudden change of attitude. Hmmmm

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. News coverage seems to imply that danger is over. ???

[Shagbark Hickory]

7. What news coverage might that be?

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. exactly! radiation story faded quickly.

[Shagbark Hickory]

9. I don't know about the domestic infotainment channels, but

CCTV (dishnetwork ch 265) talks about the nukes about once an hour during each news cast. People in China are very concerned about the radiation as you might imagine.

[Raksha]

19. It was when the story dropped off the radar screen that I started getting really worried.

This isn't exactly unexpected. I wish we could get some real information from our own government, though.

[spanone]

15. reports also seem to be saying it's far from over...the media is on to shinier objects

[thewiseguy]

10. Chief secretary Edano says the announcement is coming soon

[L0oniX]

11. I believe that at least one melt down is in progress.

[thewiseguy]

12. Breaking: Japanese government has officially raised severity of plant accident to level 7

[thewiseguy]

13. Japanese government: Situation is not same as Chernobyl

At least they did not say this new change in severity level will not be harmful to humans or environment!

[thewiseguy]

14. News conference going on: Amount of radiation released is 10% of Chernobyl

Playing games with words again....

[thewiseguy]

16. The guy is trying to undermine the seriousness of this accident by comparing it to Chernobyl

This is not Chernobyl so everything is fine.

[nc4bo]

17. And from April 11th, Adm. Robert Willard, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command

said Monday he views the situation at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in disaster-hit northeast Japan as improving day by day.

''I think currently the situation in Fukushima has improved and improving every day,'' Willard said at a press conference in New York.

But he said the situation is ''not without continued risk'' and that a close watch needs to be kept on developments at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.

''It's worth watching very closely as the days go on,'' he said.

More at the link: http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/84737.html

Oh yea?

[thewiseguy]

18. The amount of BS coming out of officials has been unbelievable

God knows what they know now and are not telling. Remember how many times the Japanese government was reassuring their people and everyone else that there was no massive release of radioactive material?

Who is going to hold them accountable now?

Assholes.

[nc4bo]

20. At least with the GOM mess, they could try to hide the damage but there were eyes

and ears on the ground and tons of visual evidence that captured some of the catastrophe, not so in this case. Media has basically shut down, Japanese and American officials all in full deception-mode and they'll get away with it. We can't even trust the measurements being taken.

You can't SEE radiation like you can a huge oil blowout. And the physical harm done to plant, animal and human life can easily be blamed on other causes, especially reproductive problems and cancers.

It's all just too horrible (and hopeless) for words.

[Raschel]

22. Yah, it's 10% BUT Tepco is still ESTIMATING, BUT it might even exceed Chernobyl amount.

Same old contraditory b.s. The only thing true is that it will exceed Chernobyl.


He (NISA spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama) said the amount of radiation leaking from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant was around 10 percent of the Chernobyl accident.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the plant, is still estimating the total amount of radioactive material that might be released by the accident, said company spokesman Junichi Matsumoto.

He acknowledged the amount of radioactivity released might even exceed the amount emitted by Chernobyl.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110412/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_earthquake

[franzia99]

21. They were telling us for weeks that this would be no Chernobyl. Some nuclear physicists said they

were downplaying it.

[Raschel]

23. So did people on DU.

[JohnyCanuck]

25. Kick back to top n/t