Andre-Claude Lacoste, president of the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), has announced the danger of the situation in Japan has now been raised to Level 6 alert. There are only 7 levels.
Level 7 has been reached only once in the world, when Chernobyl plant exploded in 1986.
Lacoste: "We are now in a situation different from that of yesterday. It is quite clear that we are at a level 6, which is intermediate between what happened at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl."
The problem with this analysis is that there was only one reactor involved in Chernobyl, and in Three Mile Island. We currently have six nuclear reactors in Japan in various states of increasingly critical condition. Clearly, the international rating system of the ASN needs be amended to include previously-unforeseen scenarios such as this. Or, as many have called for already today, simply declare this mess what it is - a Level 8.
