Danger level of toxic water leak at Fukushima raised

Is now at Level 3 on a danger scale of 7.

The toxic water leak at Japan's damaged Fukushima power plant has been raised to a "serious incident" classification by the Nuclear Regulatory Authority, the nuclear regulator.

NRA said the decision to give the leak a Level 3 classification follows a discussion with the International Atomic Energy Agency based in Vienna.

The leak was previously assigned a Level 1 or "anomaly rating" on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. The scale ranges from zero for no safety threat to 7 for major incidents like the meltdown Fukushima suffered as a result of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The decision to raise the alert level came two days after a Japanese government minister compared efforts by the plant's operator to deal with toxic leaks to a game of "whack-a-mole."

The leakage of some 300 tons of highly radioactive water from a surface tank at the plant went unnoticed for more than a month before it was discovered on Aug. 19.

The leak was found due to a spike in the beta-ray exposure levels of plant workers.