» Water leakage issue raised up from level 1 to level 3

2013/08/21

The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) announced Aug. 21 that the leakage of highly contaminated radioactive water from an above-ground tank at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant is considered as a Level 3 (serious incident) on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES).

After initially determining a provisional rating of Level 1 (anomaly) for the incident, the NRA decided to reevaluate the matter after learning that TEPCO had estimated the amount of leaked water from the plant to be around 300 metric tons — and the total radioactive release to be around 24 trillion becquerels, based on the density of radioactive substances found in the water.

“We have no time to lose with respect to the situation that is now occurring,” countered NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka, announcing that the matter would indeed be referred to the IAEA.
<Media Report>
Fukushima alert level rise ‘significant'(BBC)

Severity of radioactive water tank leak at Fukushima plant upgraded to Level 3 (Mainichi Newspaper)

Severity level of Fukushima water leak raised to ‘serious’　(Japan Times)

Tags:leakage, news, radioactive water, reactors, TEPCO

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