 TOKYO Japan's nuclear crisis escalated to its worst level since a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima plant more than two years ago, with the country's nuclear watchdog saying it feared more storage tanks were leaking contaminated water. A spokesman for the NRA said the agency plans to upgrade the severity of the crisis from a Level 1 "anomaly" to a Level 3 "serious incident" on an international scale for radiological releases. The plant suffered multiple meltdowns following a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 _ a level 7 "major accident," the highest on the INES rating and the worst since Chernobyl in 1986. The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, or Tepco, has been criticized for its failure to prepare for the disaster and has since been accused of covering up the extent of the problems at the plant. INES Guidelines and good practices 
 
 This publication is the first to provide guidance on establishing or improving a national framework for the effective use of INES during event communication. "We should assume that what has happened once could happen again, and prepare for more," watchdog chairman Shunichi Tanaka told a news conference. After months of denial, Tepco recently admitted the plant was leaking contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean from trenches between the reactor buildings and the shoreline. These levels consider 3 areas of impact: 
 
 People and the environment 
 
 Radiological barriers and control 
 
 Defense in depth 
 
 Events without safety significance are rated as Below Scale/Level 0.
– With Fukushima's radioactive leak now leakier, Japan's nuclear agency plans to up the alert level of the problem from a one to a three, reports the BBC—that's from an "anomaly" to a "serious incident," per the UN's International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. For some perspective, the 2011 meltdown was a level seven, or a "major accident." Still, if the UN's nuclear agency OKs the upgrade, this would be the first time Japan has issued a warning since the original meltdown, notes Reuters. Since the new leak was found, teams have been surrounding the affected tank with sandbags and trying to vacuum up puddles of radioactive water. But most of the water has already been absorbed into the ground, reports the BBC, and the chairman of the Japanese agency fears more tanks will follow suit soon. "We should assume that what has happened once could happen again, and prepare for more," he says, per the AP. "We are at a situation where there is no time to waste."