|
Download Japan's nuclear crisis escalated to its worst level in two years on Wednesday, with its nuclear watchdog saying it feared more tanks were leaking contaminated water, while China expressed its shock over the disaster. Japan's nuclear regulator also said it feared the disaster exceeded the ability of Tokyo Electric Power Co to cope "in some respects". A spokesman for the Nuclear Regulation Authority said earlier on Wednesday that the agency plans to upgrade the severity of the crisis from a level 1 "anomaly" to a level three "serious incident" on an international scale for radiological releases. Such a move would be the most serious action taken since the plant was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011. At its height, the Fukushima crisis was classified as level seven - one of only two events ever rated in that category along with the Chernobyl disaster a quarter of a century ago. Other incidents that have been ranked level three include the 2005 radioactive waste leak at the British nuclear reprocessing facility in Sella field. The Japanese regulator will now inform the International Atomic Energy Agency about the leak and consult with the UN body over the accuracy of its assessment, officials said. "Any way you look at it, this is deplorable," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a regular news conference on Wednesday. "The government will make every effort to halt the leak of contaminated water as soon as possible." | 
