Japan radiation raised to Chernobyl level

TOKYO -- Japan's nuclear regulators raised the severity level of the crisis at a stricken nuclear plant Tuesday to rank it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

An official with the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, speaking on national television, said the rating was being raised from 5 to 7 -- the highest level on the international scale. He said the amount of radiation leaking from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant was around 10 percent of the Chernobyl accident.

Level 7 signifies a "major accident" with "wider consequences" than the previous level, according to the standards scale.

"We have upgraded the severity level to 7 as the impact of radiation leaks has been widespread from the air, vegetables, tap water and the ocean," said Minoru Oogoda of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

NISA officials said one of the factors behind the decision was that the total amount of radioactive particles released into the atmosphere since the incident had reached levels that apply to a Level 7 incident.

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 19 miles 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.

Setbacks continued at the nuclear power complex, with workers discovering a small fire Tuesday near a reactor building. The fire was extinguished quickly, the plant's operator said.

It wasn't clear whether the fire was related to a magnitude-6.3 earthquake that shook the Tokyo area in the morning. The aftershock came just ours after people bowed their heads and wept in somber ceremonies to mark a month since the massive earthquake and tsunami killed up to 25,000 people.