Rising Sun Update- Japan Rattled by Strong Aftershocks 1 Month Later; Crisis Level At Fukushima Daiichi Plant Raised

Barely a month past the strongest earthquake on record in Japan and the devastating tsunami and ongoing crisis at a stricken nuclear power plant, the northern and eastern sections of the country were jolted by a series of powerful aftershocks that rocked Tokyo and the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The earlier magnitude 6.4 quake was thought to have killed at least 3 people in Iwaki, north of Tokyo, after it triggered a series of landslides and buried homes.

Meanwhile, Japanese officials had raised the nuclear alert, putting it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet Union.

TOKYO -- Japan raised the severity level of the crisis at its crippled nuclear plant Tuesday to rank it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing cumulative radiation leaks contaminating the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater.

Japanese nuclear regulators said the rating was being raised from 5 to 7 -- the highest level on an international scale overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency -- after new assessments of radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant since it was disabled by the March 11 tsunami.

The new ranking signifies a "major accident" with "wider consequences" than the previous level, including widespread health effects, according to the Vienna-based IAEA.

The revision came a day after the government added five communities to a list of places people should leave to avoid long-term radiation exposure. A 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius already had been cleared around the plant.

Officials from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said that the cumulative amount of radioactive particles released into the atmosphere since the incident had reached levels that apply to a Level 7 incident. Other factors included damage to the plant's buildings and accumulated radiation levels for its workers.

"We have upgraded the severity level to 7 as the impact of radiation leaks has been widespread from the air, vegetables, tap water to the ocean," NISA official Minoru Oogoda said.

Not surprisingly, the strong aftershocks suspended the ongoing emergency repair work at the stricken Fukushima plant.

The overheating reactors at Fukushima Daiichi have two layers of backup functions in case of a power cut—diesel-powered generators and emergency fire pumps—so they can continue receiving cooling water. But these functions require workers to turn them on manually. This became a problem Monday as a tsunami warning forced all workers to move to a shelter on the plant grounds

One of the aftershocks struck shortly after regional memorials that took place on the 1-month anniversary of the quake and tsunami took place.