TOKYO - The Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) , the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, said Tuesday that it is concerned that radiation leakage at the plant could eventually exceed that of the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe, Kyodo reported on Tuesday.

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"The radiation leak has not stopped completely and our concern is that the amount of leakage could eventually reach that of Chernobyl or exceed it,"' an official from the TEPCO said.

Japan on Tuesday morning raised the severity level of the accident at the plant to the maximum 7 on an international scale, up from the current 5 and matching that of the Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine.