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Japanese authorities reclassified the Fukushima nuclear emergency on Monday, raising it from a level five to a level seven on the UN International Nuclear Events scale. The scale only goes from 1 to 7. The reassessment, putting Fukushima on par with the Chernobyl disaster, has prompted two distinct reactions. Some, including Russia’s Nuclear Chief Sergei Kiriyenko, disagree with the comparison. Kiriyenko said yesterday, “[Fukushima] doesn’t reach the sixth level. I suspect this is more of a financial issue than a nuclear one.” However many are skeptical not of the change in status, but of the Japanese government’s reluctance to acknowledge the severity of the situation. According to Physicians for Social Responsibility, a level 7 rating reflects the reality that, “[t]his is a catastrophic accident with the potential to affect the health of hundreds of thousands of people.” The elevated level assigned to Fukushima comes within two weeks of the 25th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, considered the worst nuclear crisis in history. On April 26, 1986 an explosion at the nuclear power plant sent a plume of radiation miles into the atmosphere, and a fire at the reactor core burned for 10 days.

GUEST: Dr. Jeff Patterson, the immediate past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), and a radioactive exposure expert

Find out more at www.psr.org.