Japan to Raise Fukushima Status to Level 3 'Serious Incident'

The situation at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear campus has been escalated to a level-three "serious incident," Japan said Wednesday. The news comes In light of the revelation that a storage tank has leaked 300 metric tons of water so contaminated a person standing nearby would get five times the annual limit of radiation allowed for nuclear workers in just one hour.

The nuclear plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has struggled to keep myriad problems at the beleaguered nuclear campus under control and the Japanese government has indicated it will step in and provide assistance.

Japanese reports indicate the escalation from level one to level three is provisional and must be confirmed by the IAEA, the United Nations' nuclear agency, the BBC reported.

The IAEA made the following statement Wednesday:

"The IAEA is aware of media reports that Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) intends to rate leaks of radioactive water at Tepco's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station at level 3 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES). Japanese authorities continue to provide the Agency with information on the situation at the plant, and Agency experts are following the issue closely. The IAEA views this matter seriously and remains ready to provide assistance on request."

The leak is reportedly the worst since the Fukushima incident began more than two years ago when a March 2011 earthquake and tsunami overcame the coastal nuclear campus, knocking out cooling systems and initiating nuclear meltdowns in three reactors.

At its height on the INES, the Fukushima incident was rated at a seven, placing the event on par with Chernobyl in terms of severity.

Regarding the highly contaminated leak, Nuclear Regulation Authority chairman Shunichi Tanaka said: "Something that we were very much concerned about has occurred. We are in a situation where there is no time to lose."

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reported that most of the leaked water has already disappeared into the ground.