Japan raises level of alert at Fukushima plant to maximum 7

TOKYO, April 12 (Itar-Tass) - Japan's National Nuclear Security
Administration has taken a decision to raise the accident alert level at
the Fukushima-1 nuclear plant to the maximum Seven /'Major Accident'/ from
the previous Five /'Accident With Wider Consequences'/ under the
International Nuclear Events Scale.
This is the second case in the history of commercial nuclear power
industry that an accident at a nuclear plant is assigned the highest level
of danger. The previous time it happened was in 1986 in Chernobyl.
The NNSA took the decision after analyzing the data on radiation
levels.
The experts have found out that the amounts of radioactive iodine-137
discharged into the atmosphere in the first days after the accident
reached about 10,000 terabequerels per hour, which correspondents to Level
7 on INES.