Current Fukishima headlines #2:

[FBaggins]

21. Nope. An active imagination doesn't mean you have a clue.

There isn't any "speculation" here. Just the facts. You're the one making entirely unsubstantiated claims. Seven is the top of the scale... not just coincidentally as high as we've yet to see.

I'd love to give you more rope to hang yourself with, but let's just jump straight to the facts. The IAEA gives guidance for converting the activity level (in Iodine equivalence) of any release into an INES level.

Level 5 = "An event resulting in an environmental release corresponding to a quantity of radioactivity radiologically equivalent to a release to the atmosphere of the order of hundreds to thousands of terabecquerels of 131I.”

Level 6 = "An event resulting in an environmental release corresponding to a quantity of radioactivity radiologically equivalent to a release to the atmosphere of the order of thousands to tens of thousands of terabecquerels of 131I"

Level 7 = "An event resulting in an environmental release corresponding to a quantity of radioactivity radiologically equivalent to a release to the atmosphere of more than several tens of thousands of terabecquerels of 131I"

That's right... anything "more than" that falls into the INES 7 category, with no ceiling. "Several" isn't as clear as some might prefer, so they give rough guidance on dividing lines:

"However, in order to help ensure consistent interpretation of these criteria internationally, it is suggested that the boundaries between the levels are about 500, 5,000 and 50,000 TBq 131I"

So if you were correct that the INES scale is logarithmic without a top end... INES 8 would start where?

Roughly 500,000 TBq 131I. INES 9 would start at roughly 5,000,000 TBq 131I.

Since Chernobyl is scored at above even that line... it would be an INES 9 if you were right.

You weren't.

http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/INES-2009_web.pdf (Page 17)

Interestingly, it's important to note that there are three areas to be analyzed and the overall score is not a balance of the three... they take whichever one is highest. If they were judging Fukushima by the dose to individuals, the guidance would put it at INES 4 or less... since even four expects "The likely occurrence of a lethal deterministic effect as a result of whole body exposure, leading to an absorbed dose5 of the order of a few Gy”."... and how many people have there been with an absorbed dose "of the order of a few Gy"