The moment the tsunami hits the Fukushima nuclear power plant Photo: AP
By Julian Ryall, Tokyo 3:41AM BST 12 Apr 2011
Previously, the damage to reactors at the plant, 137 miles north of Tokyo, has been rated at level 5 on the scale, putting it on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979. The government elevated the disaster by two notches, a rating that has previously only been applied to the Chernobyl accident in 1986.
The government’s decision is based on a preliminary calculation by the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan.
The safety agency, a government body, estimates the amount of radiation released to be 370,000 terabecquerels. One terabecquerel is a trillion becquerels, the standard measure of radiation.
Japan’s safety commission, an quasi-independent panel of experts advising the government, estimates the total amount emitted is much higher, at 630,000 terabecquerels. The permissible level of iodine-131 for vegetables and fish is 2,000 becquerels per kilogram.
The agency also said radiation beyond the amount considered safe for humans during a full year had been detected up to 37 miles northwest of the plant and 24 miles to the southwest, well beyond the 18-mile exclusion zone the government has imposed around the nuclear plant.
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