Japan is poised to declare a toxic water leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant a level 3 "serious incident," its gravest warning since the aftermath of the massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami that sent three reactors into meltdown, SIA reports citing CNN.
The country's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) told CNN the leak was due to be formally classified as a level 3 incidents on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale after a meeting later Wednesday.
The leak had previously been assigned a level 1 "anomaly rating" on the scale, which ranges from zero, for no safety threat, to seven -- a major accident like the meltdowns that were seen at the plant in the wake of the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which is in charge of the plant, has struggled to manage the vast quantities of contaminated water at the plant since the tsunami, which swamped the facility.
Scientists have pointed to high radiation levels in the waters off the plant for more than a year as evidence of an ongoing leak.
In July, TEPCO admitted that radioactive groundwater was leaking into the Pacific Ocean from the plant despite building an underground barrier to seal the water, underscoring a growing sense of crisis at the site.
The NRA said in a statement on its website that the plant "remains in an unstable condition with various risks to be addressed and in particular managing the issue of contaminated water as a high priority."
Michael Friedlander, a nuclear engineer and former U.S. power plant operator, said the level 3 classification was warranted for the type of situation faced by TEPCO but he said the risk to the general public outside of the plant boundary was very low.
"This is extremely radioactive water and it would pose a very significant risk to the workers who are going to be in a position to clean it up," he told CNN.
"It's a very difficult situation because we don't know exactly known where the leak is coming from."
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