Japan upgrades nuclear crisis

Japanese police wearing protective radiation suits search for the bodies of victims of the tsunami in the Odaka area of Minamisoma, inside the deserted evacuation zone established for the 20 kilometer radius around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors.

TOKYO — Japan's nuclear safety agency has raised the severity rating of the crisis at its nuclear plant to the highest level, on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

An official with the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, speaking on national television, said Tuesday the rating was raised from 5 to 7.

The official, who was not named, said the amount of radiation leaking from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was around 10 percent of that in the Chernobyl accident.