it is up 5.4% and it has regained that 9,000 mark. you are watching nhk "newsline." let me first remind you that the audio of this broadcast can be heard on the bilingual or sub channel of the domestic board gtv channel. an nhk helicopter has taken footage showing what appears to be white smoke billowing from the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. we are looking at the footage taken earlier. about 20 minutes ago at the fukushima daiichi power plant

where what appears to be white smoke blowing from the fukushima daiichi power plant. what has been happening since then is the plant reported another fire and flames were seen coming from some of the reactors then and now from 10:00 a.m. an nhk helicopter is flying 30 kilometer away from the plant had been taken footages of this nhk fukushima daiichi i plant where you see white smoke billowing from there. we do not know if it is caused by the flame, or if it is hydrogen explosion. we will be updating with you as we have more details on that. you are now looking at footage taken about 20 minutes ago at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant where smoke is

billowing from there. about 10:00 a.m. japan time,ening a nhk helicopter filmed smoke coming from the fukushima daiichi power plant. helicopter is flying 30 kilometers away from the plant. we don't know the details of which reactor it is coming from, or whether it is caused by flame or a hydrogen explosion, as we have seen in some of the reactors yesterday and the day before. earlier wednesday the plant operator reported fire at the fukushima daiichi power plant and flames were seen coming from the number four reactor building then. the same building that caught fire on tuesday. the tokyo electric power company says there were no visible signs of fire about a half hour after it was detected. however, as you see, this is the video footage taken about 20

minutes ago at the fukushima daiichi power plant that smoke is billowing from the power plant fukushima daiichi there. all i nuclear four at the number four building was dmept a storage pool when friday's quake hit the plant. we are talking about the number four reactor building at the moment, but we don't know where the smoke is coming from as of yet. we talking about what's happening since yesterday. the tremors stopped water circulation at number four reactor building. that is needed to cool the facility down and the company says the temperature of the pool has climbed to 84 degrees celsius, double the normal level. it says the water level in the pool may have dropped if the fuel rods are not fully submerged. there is a risk they will melt releasing radioactive substances. you are looking now at the footage taken by nhk helicopter

about a half hour ago at the fukushima daiichi power plant. you can see that smoke is billowing from the power plant, from the fukushima daiichi power plant. we do not know which reactor it is coming from, but there were explosions coming from number one, number three and number four reactors, caused by hydrogen from yesterday, but fire was seen this morning on number four reactor building. these hydrogen explosions is caused by heat that is rising in the reactors and it is ignited by oxygen. water is needed to cool down these reactors, and sea water and some boirk acid to hamper nuclear reactions has been taken. however, workers are unable to approach the pool due to the high radiation levels and the

company studying the possible of spraying boric acid from a helicopter to slow nuclear fission. there is no sign so far the fire caused an increase of radiation. we are talking about number four reactor yesterday. we are waiting for chief cabinet secretary's press conference to begin. now you are looking at the prime minister's office in tokyo where chief cabinet secretary yukio edano's press conference is about to begin. he will update us on the developments at the fukushima power plant. we have been looking at the smoke billowing from fukushima number one power plant. we don't know -- we haven't got any information as to which reactor it is coming from. we are waiting for the, all the information and data as the story develops. this footage you are looking at

was taken about a half hour ago by nhk helicopter flying 30 kilometers away from the plant. you can see that white smoke is billowing. we do not know whether it was ignited by fire, or if it was a hydrogen explosion caused by heat in the reactor. we are right now waiting for a press conference to begin by chief cabinet secretary yukio edano to update us on the developments at fukushima power plants. an nhk helicopter has been taking footage of what appears to be white smoke billowing from the fukushima daiichi power plant. the footage was taken -- this footage, you can see, was taken around 30 minutes ago from 30 kilometers from the nuclear power plant. nhk helicopter was positioned more than 30 kilometers from the nuclear power plant. officials at tokyo electric

power plant say they cannot confirm, but judging from the footage it could have been coming from a reactor, but which we reactor we have no information yet. they say it might have been water vapor, steam as an explosion but will make detailed inspections. officials say that workers can not go outside to inspect it. the japanese government has raised the permissible level of radiation exposure for workers at the affected nuclear plant. the present rules do not allow workers to approach the storage pool in the number four reactor building because of the high radiation readings. the health ministry announced the revision on wednesday. the previous radiation limb has been raised 2.5 times to 250 millisieverts. they say this is lower than international limit of 500 mill millisieverts. the measure was adopted to give staff enough time to take

measures that will cool the reactors. experts say exposure to radiation can cause health problems including a temporary drop in the number of white blood cells. the ministry says i reached the decision after consulting with experts on possible health affects. japanese government has urged people living between 20 and 30 kilometers from the plant to stay inside of their homes or work places them nuclear and industrial safety agency says the evacuation of people within 20 kilometers of the plant had been completed by tuesday afternoon. and government officials say radiation levels about 20 kilometers from the plant were higher than normal on tuesday evening but they say such levels are low enough not to pose danger to humans. the official said radiation levels in namemy remained 200 to 300 microsieverts on tuesday.

the town is northwest of the plant. experts say these levels are not a health threat. the number of defend and missing from frifd's massive quake and tsunami in northeastern japan has exceeded 11,000. this is the first time since world war ii has japan has record sod many victims in a natural disaster. japan's national police agency says 3,676 deaths have been confirmed so far, and 7,558 people are unaccounted for. in miyagi prefecture, 1,860 deaths has been confirmed and 2 -- 200,011 people remain missing.

await prefecture has 3,318 missing. fukushima prefecture has confirmed 509 deaths. over 440,000 people are in about 200400 health shelters. some of the shelters lack food, water and essential supplies such as fuel. relief efforts are hampered by fuel shortage for trucks and ambulances. snow is also falling. the meteorological agency warns the cold weather poses a health risk for the evacuees. the agency says strong aftershocks are likely to continue. it says near the epicenter the intensity could reach six minus to six plus on the japanese scale of zero to seven. now we have reports from miyagi

prefecture that suffered extensive damage from the earthquake and tsunami. many people continue to search for their family members and loved ones. they are supporting each other in this time of great despair. >> reporter: this is the iwate prefecture after the earthquake and tsunami, a great fire broke out and the center part of the city was devastated. in the city office, an emergency telephone line was established and there's a long line of people waiting to call their families. there are 20 shelters in the

city center, and a list of people that have evacuated has been released and this woman has been looking for her cousin for three days. she says that she didn't think that her cousin has evacuated to the south. she says -- she suddenly realizes there is a high school there. her cousin was found in an unexpected place. the woman says she's found her cousin's name. she says she's really grateful

that she's found her cousin. she said she's happy about the good news because there weren't good news recently. in the area where the fire broke out, we found one person this is 65-year-old man, a fisherman. on this day, he decided to come back to see where his house used to be. his wife and son were safe. but the house was destroyed. this was the house where he lived for over 30 years. not one photograph was saved. he says that everything has been burned down. all memories and everything.

gone. he says he still can't think about what will happen from now on. he says that this isn't a bad dream. it's real. he says that he's lost his boat and everything. he doesn't know what to do. the town has been devastated by the tsunami and fire. in the shelters, 5,600, out of a population of 19,000, have evacuated. however there are many who are unaccounted for. and at the shelter people are

supporting each day by day. -- each other day by day. this is the in mia gi prefecture where 450 people are sheltered. many people have lost their homes in the tsunami. >> cabinet secretary's press conference is about to start. translator: first of all, i have two issues to report. and one is of a request to the people of japan. in the disaster hit areas, gasoline, care seen and heavy oil and fuel is very much in

shortage. and we have been trying to secure the fuel and we have been trying to transport them to the disaster-hit areas and right now we are in the final stretch of the transportation but we are trying to solve the issue of transportation. and on the other hand, there is one thing that i would like to make a request to all of the people in japan. that you save the energy. of course we are not in immediate shortage, but we are in the process of sending the necessary fuel to the disaster-hit areas. so please refrain from buying in bulk these fuel. and in order to secure the nationwide necessary fuel, we are asking for international community to help us, but there are areas which do not have

enough fuel and we want to prioritize transporting the fuel to those areas so people who are living not in the disaster-hit areas, in areas other than disaster-hit areas, please refrain from buying in bulk the gasoline or kerosene and other types of fuel and this is in order to secure the nationwide necessary amount. this is quite necessary. we do have enough in terms of the nationwide to meet the nationwide demand. and regarding the nuclear power plant, already it has been reported by the media that at 8:30 a.m. today, at fukushima daiichi power plant, number three reactor has been seeing white smoke coming out.

and regarding this currently, we are looking for the cause and we are currently studying whether it is directly related to this white smoke or not, but near the front gate the radiation reading is fluctuating hour by hour. but on the whole, it imposes no health hazard. but the -- and to the safety agency will make an announcement on this, but at one time last night we had a reading of 1,000 millisieve millisieverts. but this morning it has reduced

to 800 to 600 millisievert. and the radiation amount near the front gate, at around 10:00 a.m. this morning, started to increase rapidly. and it has reached to the unit of millisievert. that's the report we have had. and so -- all the workers there have suspended their operations even the minimum ones, and so we have them evacuate in a safe area. they have evacuated in a safe area and for the detail, i will tell naoto kan as of 10:54 a.m.

that the reading began to drop. and we are right now conducting the analysis by the experts but a possibility, the most probable thing, this is not fixed but the most probable thing is that in, just as in number two reactor, part of the vessel evaporation is coming out and that's making -- this is the cause of the white smoke. and during this time, the radiated vapor came out. and probably that is the reason for this high radiation reading, but let me repeat. this is not confirmed yet. this is the most probably scenario as for right now.

currently we are focused on a monitoring of radiation levels. also, we are checking ou the pumping operation is going on. and we are twoing to -- going to continue the anal sis of what is going on at the site. that's all for me at this moment. so around number three reactor, white smoke is rising, but have you everast. >> no, we have no report of the blast. we have got information on the steam or smoke from number three reactor at 8:34 a.m. we got report that white smoke is rising from the number three reaker, but since then there's no report about the blast.

that's the situation at this moment. any damage it caused on the containment vessel or pressure vessel? there's no possibility of the damage on those facilities? >> a part of the containment vessel just like what happened with number two reaker -- reactor, there's a damage -- there's a probability that the vapor is coming out from the broken part of the containment vessel, but this is, again, a possibility. so we are now investigating on that. we don't have any detailed information. in a wide sense, a part of the containment vessel is broken and

seems like the vapor is coming out from there. so that it appears to be that vapor is coming out from the broken part. and i'm not saying this with absolute certainty, but i'm saying this with assumption. that's a high probability of such phenomenon going on. so currently, you are recording a high level of radiation levels but if there is any change to evacuation instructions? translator: unless we witness the situation where the radiation levels goes up very rapidly near the compound, there's no need to change the evacuation instructions. translator: how about the situation of number four reaker? translator: number four reactor has spend fuel storage pool and we are now preparing

for watering water -- for pumping water in to this reactor. currently we are seeing a rise in the radiation levels that is caused by the number three reactor. but the water injection operation is being delayed, but we are now preparing for that. the temperature seems to be rising in number four. number five and number six reactors, do you see any possibility that same thing will happen for number five and six reactors? just like the things we saw for number one, two, three, four reactors? translator: we started our effort to cool down the number five an number six reactors, as well. compared to the temperatures yesterday, the temperatures are rising, but we are now doing our

best to cool it down. regarding number four reactor, you indicated that there's a possible that pumping operation may be delayed. are you considering to use helicopters to spray water from above? are you investigating such a possibility or are you going to spray water with boric acid? translator: as for the details of the operation, we have a joimpbt task force between the government and tepco. so they are going to report it to you if you actually do that. yes, we get advice from experts to spray water from above. but depending on the situation in the storage pool, we may cause some risk if we pour water

in large amount in a very short time. so we have to analyze the risks. basically the idea is to gradually pour in water and that is more safe way to do. and specifically what is the easiest way to inject water, do you know the method? translator: well, when we have the final decision, then we will make an announcement. translator: now this joint task force, day has passed since this was established, but how is this working? translator: at least, compared with before establishing this task force, the information that we get is relatively -- has become more speedy in getting information and also the -- when there are

changes in the readings we do have a speedy reporting. and at the same time, it's difficult to send half the menster, but we have mr. -- adviser go there and he knows what the tepco is doing. so we have a full grasp of what the tepco is doing and we get the reports periodically. so i believe that the cooperation between us is much better but such cooperation is really difficult for us to see. translator: which team and which timing, particularly at the time of normality, what kind of information will be conveyed? translator: that is something that should be worked out between tepco, and also it

really depends on the reporting by tepco as well as the safety agency and also by the prime minister's office. translator: about the number four nuclear reactor, it isoo