A leading Japanese daily says the level of radiation from the crippled Fukushima Number One nuclear power plant in Japan is classified as a level 6 incident.

The Asahi Shimbun said Friday that Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission has been analyzing the released amount of radioactive iodine since radioactive substances began leaking out of the nuclear power plant. The leak followed hydrogen explosions at the plant caused by a powerful earthquake two weeks ago. The commission found that the amount of iodine being released every hour stood at some 30-thousand to 110-thousand terra-becquerels.

The estimated figure is relatively lower than the one-point-eight million terra-becquerels of iodine that was released hourly during the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in 1986. However, the figure classifies the accident in the Fukushima nuclear power plant as a “level six,” or one level higher than the level Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency tentatively estimated last Friday.

With the new analysis on iodine emissions, the agency is likely to raise the rating for the Fukushima accident.