Level 3 Fukushima

[WEAREONE]

An aerial view shows Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture in this March 11, 2013 file photo.
Credit: Reuters/Kyodo/Files
TOKYO | Tue Aug 20, 2013 10:28pm EDT
(Reuters) - Japan will raise the severity rating of a recent toxic water leak at the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant to level 3, or "serious incident", on an international scale for radiological releases, underlining the deepening sense of crisis at the site.

Contaminated water with dangerously high levels of radiation is leaking from a storage tank at Fukushima, the plant's operator said on Tuesday, the most serious setback to date for the clean up of the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) assessed that the leak merits a level 3 rating, classifying it as a "serious incident" on the INES scale, according to a document posted on the agency's website on Wednesday.

The leak had previously been assigned a level 1 "anomaly" rating, but the increase to level 3 is scheduled for formal adoption by the authority's commissioners later on Wednesday after a meeting that is currently under way, a spokesman for the agency told Reuters by phone.

"Judging from the amount and the density of the radiation in the contaminated water that leaked ... a level 3 assessment is appropriate," according to the document, which is one of several discussion points at the regular weekly meeting of NRA commissioners being held on Wednesday.

This marks the first time Japan has issued an INES rating for Fukushima since the meltdowns in March 2011, following a massive earthquake and tsunami. Fukushima was assigned the highest rating of 7 after it was hit by explosions in the wake of a loss of power and cooling.

Each one-step increase on the INES scale represents a 10 times increase in severity, according to a factsheet on the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

(Reporting by Kentaro Hamada and James Topham; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/21/us-japan-fukushima-severity-idUSBRE97K02B20130821?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=992637

[Nothingness]

I've been following this. I haven't been on this site for a while because I have been occupied with other things (the pollution levels for fish on the West Coast are in some cases off the charts lately), but I want to add something to this, even though it is off topic, because I don't have time to start a thread, but I want to draw attention to it--even though it is about 10 months old.

UC Davis came out with a study fairly recently that states that it did studies on children and they found food-borne toxins at critical levels in children (these were not isolated cases): "Perhaps most disturbing, preschool-age children had higher exposure to more than half the toxic compounds being measured. Even relatively low exposures can greatly increase the risk of cancer or neurological impairment." For the sake of children, they recommended only organic food for every child in this country:

http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/publish/news/newsroom/7190

The repercussion of this are devastating. How many of our children are already destined for cancer or brain impairment in this country alone, and only with regard to a portion of our food supply without even considering all the other pollutants? I don't want to be negative, but is anyone listening?

I believe in God, and know some don't, but I can only say: May God have mercy on us. If people were ever to wake up en masse, now is always the time. Life is what it is and always has been, and I think: Destiny has to take it's course in the universe and existence, but these are our children and our humanity. It's hard to sit by and watch. How much worse does it have to get?

[ghostrider]

I think it has already leaked into the ocean, killing dolphins, whales, etc ... radioactive water, turns into rain , then contaminates the ground ... this is bad , our plejaren friends call it a worst case scenerio , thats why they scan our nuke sites, and tell us get away from nuclear power , it has destroyed life on earth in the past many times ... we are repeating history using nuclear energy ... we don't allow for meteor strikes which could damage anything we build on earth, our scientist dont think of meteors or quakes when building nuclear sites ... the plejaren say there are too many variables to use nuclear power safely ... they have experienced reactors bursting and it killed 48 million of their citizens in the past , which is why they strickly forbid the use of nuclear energy ... there is no safe way to use it ...