3
2
2
Fukushima Elevated to Level 7 - by Stephen Lendman
Fukushima's disaster will scar much, perhaps all of Japan for generations, including fetuses and newborns to be genetically harmed by radiation poisoning.
Kyodo News announced the latest news headlining, "Japan ups Fukushima nuke crisis severity to 7, same as Chernobyl," saying:
"The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) upgraded its provisional evaluation based on an estimate that radioactive materials far exceeding the criteria for level 7 have so far been released into the external environment...."
NISA and Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) estimate that 370,000 - 630,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials have been released from Units 1, 2 and 3. One terabecquerel equals one trillion becquerels.
In other words, with no crisis resolution in sight, enormous radiation amounts have already been released since March 11. Northern Japan has been contaminated. The rest of the country has been affected, and so have the Pacific rim and Northern Hemisphere.
In fact, rating Fukushima Level 7 understates it, especially since radiation emitted will continue for an indeterminate period - at least months, maybe years.
On March 12, New York Times writers Hiroko Tabuchi and Keith Bradsher headlined, "Japan Nuclear Disaster Put on Par with Chernobyl," saying:
"The decision to raise the alert level to 7....amounts to an admission that the accident....is likely to have substantial and long-lasting consequences for health and for the environment."
The IAEA describes level 7 as:
"A major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects requiring implementation of planned and extended counter measures."
"An event resulting in an environmental release corresponding to a quantity of radioactivity equivalent to a release to the atmosphere of more than tens of thousands of terabecquerels."
"With such a release, stochastic health effects over a wide area, perhaps involving more than one country, are expected, and there is a possibility of deterministic health effects. Long-term environmental consequences are also likely, and it is very likely that protective action such as sheltering and evacuation will be judged necessary to prevent or limit health effects on members of the public."
According to Nagoya University's Professor Tetsuo Iguchi:
The Japanese government confirmed "that the amount of radiation released into the environment has reached a new order of magnitude. The fact that we have now confirmed the world's second-ever level 7 accident will have huge consequences for the global nuclear industry. It shows that current safety standards are woefully inadequate."
Even a Toyko Electric (TEPCO) official admitted, "The radiation leak has not stopped completely and our concern is that it could eventually exceed Chernobyl."
