http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42084187/ns/world_news-asiapacific/Japan crisis worse than Three Mile Island, experts say
No-fly zone imposed near stricken nuclear site; 140,000 people told to seal themselves indoors
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
SOMA, Japan — The nuclear accident at an earthquake-damaged nuclear plant in Japan can now be classed as level six out of an international scale of one to seven, experts said Tuesday.
France's ASN nuclear safety authority's assessment came after Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation had spread from the four stricken reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant along Japan's northeastern coast.
Two reactors exploded on Tuesday at the plant after days of frantic efforts to cool them.
Level seven was used only once, for Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986. The 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania was rated a level five.
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