France Fears Japan Nuclear Consequences May Be Worse Than Chernobyl

Destruction and white smoke from the Fukushima reactor's block 3 (L) and remains of reactor block number 4 (R), after both blocks suffered heavy damage following explosions. Photo by EPA/BGNES

The worst case scenario for the nuclear hazard posed by Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi NPP may trigger graver consequences than Chernobyl, a spokesperson for the French government has stated.

" I am not an expert, I just share what Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said when she spoke about some of the worst that could happen," government spokesman Francois Baroin has said, as cited by Le Point.

The situation at the nuclear plant already deserves Level 6 on the international scale that rates the severity of nuclear incidents, according to Andre Claude Lacoste, president of France's nuclear safety authority.

The Fukushima nuclear accident is "worse than Three Mile Island but not as great as Chernobyl," Lacoste has said, as cited by the Economic Times.

The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) classifies on the scale at seven levels, Level 7 meaning "major accident". The scale is designed so that the severity of an event isabout ten times greater for each increase in level. Level 7 is described as a "major accident" in which there has been a large release of radioactive material and there will be widespread health and environmental effects.

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