August 21, 2013 – JAPAN - Japan’s nuclear crisis escalated to its worst level since a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima plant more than two years ago, with the country’s nuclear watchdog saying it feared more storage tanks were leaking contaminated water. The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Wednesday it viewed the situation at Fukushima “seriously” and was ready to help if called upon, while nearby China said it was “shocked” to hear contaminated water was still leaking from the plant, and urged Japan to provide information “in a timely, thorough and accurate way. We hope the Japanese side can earnestly take effective steps to put an end to the negative impact of the after-effects of the Fukushima nuclear accident,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement faxed to Reuters in Beijing. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga called the situation “deplorable,” and the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said it feared the disaster – the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl a quarter of a century earlier – was “in some respects” beyond the plant operator’s ability to cope. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, or Tepco, has been criticized for its failure to prepare for the disaster and has since been accused of covering up the extent of the problems at the plant. . . . .
Crisis: A spokesman for the NRA said the agency plans to upgrade the severity of the crisis from a Level 1 “anomaly to a Level 3 serious incident” on an international scale for radiological releases. An upgrade would be the first time Japan has issued a warning on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) since the three reactor meltdowns at Fukushima in March 2011.
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