The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed on April 12 2011 that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster has been rated as a Level 7 rather than a Level 5 accident. This upgrade is based on releases of radioactive iodine, caesium, and plutonium from the Fukushima Daichi triple meltdown of March 2011, following the massive earthquake and tsunami of March 11. Thus the Fukushima Daiichi disaster is in the same category as the Chornobyl disaster of 1986, even though total radioactive emissions are about 10 times less due to the mitigating presence of reactor containment vessels in the Japanese case.