IAEA Defends Late Japan Nuclear Severity Upgrade

VIENNA -- The U.N. nuclear agency says Japan's decision to wait until now to raise the ranking of its nuclear disaster to the most severe level does not mean that authorities have been downplaying the disaster.

The comments from a senior International Atomic Energy Agency official come after Japan increased the level of the Fukushima nuclear crisis to the same level as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. At the same time, authorities insisted that radiation leaks are declining at the tsunami-crippled nuclear plant.

IAEA official Denis Flory told reporters Tuesday the move to upgrade the severity to level seven from level five was made after Japan was able to assess the total amount of radiation up to date.

He said that figure --370,000 terrabecquerels -- is about 7 percent of the total released by the 1987 Chernobyl accident.

"They didn't wait for the scale (to change) to take full measures," Flory told reporters.