Japan radioactive leak now 'serious'

Japan’s nuclear regulator has upgraded the rating of a leak of radiation-contaminated water at its tsunami-hit nuclear plant to a “serious incident” on an international scale.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority originally gave a Level 1 rating – an “anomaly” – to the August 19 leak of 300 tons (80,000 gallons) of water from a tank at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. Last week it proposed raising that to Level 3 – a “serious incident” – and it made that change after consulting the International Atomic Energy Agency.