FUKUSHIMA OFFICIALLY AS BAD AS CHERNOBYL

Japan May Raise Nuclear Accident Rating as Radiation Increases
Tsuyoshi Inajima, April 11, 2011 (Bloomberg News)

"Japan’s nuclear crisis may be raised to the highest level of severity, matching Chernobyl’s rating, as increasing radiation prompts the government to widen the evacuation zone…

"Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency lifted the rating level to 7…The accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s station is currently rated 5 on the global scale, the same as the 1979 partial reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania."

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"The stricken nuclear plant, located about 220 kilometers (135 miles) north of Tokyo, is leaking radiation in Japan’s worst civilian nuclear disaster after a magnitude-9 quake and tsunami on March 11. The plant has withstood hundreds of aftershocks, and the government widened the surrounding evacuation zone…

"A magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Chiba, the prefecture east of Tokyo, at 8:08 a.m. local time [Monday]…This followed a 6.6-magnitude temblor [Sunday] and a magnitude 7.1 aftershock…[Thursday]…A fire at the sampling building near the No. 4 reactor at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi station was [discovered and] extinguished [Monday, unrelated to the earthquake]…"