Japan raises Fukushima disaster to Chernobyl's Level 7

In a reassessment of the scale of the disaster, Japan has decided to put the accident at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on par with the 1986 Chernobyl explosion. Yesterday, officials, monks, military officers and other emergency workers observed a minute's silence in Natori, Japan.

The decision to raise the alert level from 5 to 7 on the scale it tantamount to a rather belated admission that the accident at the nuclear facility, brought about by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami would likely have substantial and long-lasting consequences for health and for the environment.

Industry experts have long argued that the accident released large amounts of radiation, but the possibility had been denied by Japanese officials keen on playing down the possibility.

According to new estimates by Japanese authorities the total amount of radioactive materials released so far was equal to about 10 per cent of that released in the Chernobyl accident, Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director general of Japan's nuclear regulator, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

Nishiyama however, sought to point out that unlike at Chernobyl, where the explosion occurred in the reactors itself, the release of radioactive material was fanned by fire, the containments at the four troubled reactors at Fukushima remained intact over all.

However, at a separate news conference, an official from the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, said, ''The radiation leak has not stopped completely and our concern is that it could eventually exceed Chernobyl.''