Japan to raise Fukushima crisis level to worst "7"

So, what does all this mean? Increased cancers and birth defects.

Like this.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Kiev-UkrainianNationalChernob...

----------" Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment is an English translation of the 2007 Russian publication Chernobyl. It was published online in 2009 by the New York Academy of Sciences in their Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. It presents an analysis of scientific literature and concludes that medical records between 1986, the year of the accident, and 2004 reflect 985,000 deaths as a result of the radioactivity released. The authors suggest that most of the deaths were in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, but others were spread through the many other countries the radiation from Chernobyl struck.[40] The literature analysis draws on over 1,000 published titles and over 5,000 internet and printed publications discussing the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. The authors contend that those publications and papers were written by leading Eastern European authorities and have largely been downplayed or ignored by the IAEA and UNSCEAR.[41] Author Alexy V. Yablokov was also one of the general editors on the Greenpeace commissioned report also criticizing the Chernobyl Forum finds published one year prior to the Russian language version of this report."--------

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster_effects

985,000 deaths is a lot of deaths from one accident. And radiation levels continue at high levels over much of Europe today, 25 years later.

Context: The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) was introduced by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) 1990.

Previously on the INES Fukushima was at Level 5: Accident with wider consequences

-Impact on people and environment
- Limited release of radioactive ­material likely to require i­mplementation of some planned­ countermeasures.
- Several deaths from ­radiation.

Impact on radiological barriers and control
- Severe damage to reactor core.
- Release of large quantities of radioactive material within an installation with a high probability of significant public exposure. This could arise from a major critically accident or fire.

Now it's at a Maximum Level 7: Major accident

"Major release of radioactivematerial with widespread health and environmental effects requiring implementation of planned and extended countermeasures."

...And then it gives Cherynobal as an example...

And that's all the information the scale provides. It goes from 5 "Limited release of radioactive ­material several deaths from ­radiation" to a 7 "Release of large quantities of radioactive material widespread health and environmental effects."

Sounds Forebodingly vague.... like so bad "we don't even want to try and quantify the amount of deaths resulting from this nuclear holocaust."