if. breaking news this hour a massive radioactive fallout is cleared after an explosion at the fukushima nuclear power plant in japan the reactors roof caved in injuring at least for the arkansas people within a twenty kilometer zone apart are being evacuated it closed japan's the worst ever quake and the resulting tsunami whole villages have been swept away over seven hundred people are confirmed dead that is the rescue continues that number is expected to rise.

a very warm welcome to you this is on now to live from moscow just one story dominating the world's attention right now and that's the disaster in japan a blast has destroyed polish the nuclear facility in the tsunami hit north a twenty kilometer evacuation zone is in place but all thora say radiation levels are decreasing well it's also understood the explosion was caused by a failure in the cooling system and not the reality itself which was unaffected the blast struck before one nuclear plant some two hundred fifty kilometers north of tokyo the roof and one of the walls caved in injuring at least four workers official say the reactor is not affected well there have been reports that three people who were evacuated from the area have been exposed to radiation the

explosion follows thursday's eight point nine magnitude earthquake that triggered a massive tsunami and cause scenes of devastation dozens of kilometers and over seven hundred people are now confirmed dead but it's thought that number could reach more than a thousand rescuers have reported scenes of shocking devastation with entire villages rushed away and towns ravaged by the tsunami. well a possible radiation leak from the fukushima nuclear plant remains the biggest concern i've heard there it is in tokyo for r.t. . latest here is that we've just actually experienced an aftershock quite a large on the first concert so being here and for about five seconds one star sitting down my chair was wobbling is very strange experiences in the last twenty four hours there have actually been around a hundred aftershocks or over that and out that this one was a powerful one it was centered around fukushima district in fact measuring six on

the magnitude scale so quite a large aftershock and this is well over twenty four hours since the initial earthquake and others say this one was centered as it turned out on the full focal shima district which is where the new nuclear reactor explosion took place earlier today when he is a potential nuclear fallout we have heard since that there was no damage done in that explosion to the reactor itself if there was then radiation would have been leaking in that was an initial fear in fact when they found cesium and radioactive iodine on the outside of the silla see whole heard there hasn't been any damage that explosion to the reactor and radiation levels have since decreased and so much so in fact that. the authorities have been able to release some of the pressure inside the reactor because that's still very high indeed and that's still a concern it's still very hot in there as well and they need to release the to

release the pressure and they've been able to do that since and without affecting the radiation levels in fact they've been dropping the fears of mainly aren't here in turkey although with fearing feeling aftershocks that and people are out on the streets here it's not because of that because they're calling their loved ones i'm told. by people here that i've met in the last since i've been here and everyone's concerned about the people near focal shimon near these near the explosion of this nuclear reactor because cern now is the spread of radiation there has been evacuations of the twenty kilometer radius. around this from a power plant number one where this explosion took place as a precaution because radiation in he's in the air earlier today the levels of radiation there were if you stood outside for an hour next to the plant and he would have absorbed as much radiation as he would do normally in the year or so in other plant is. under an emerged state of emergency as well with residents in the

city being evacuated to three kilometer radius they're going back and want to get in ten o'clock to radius they've been told to stay inside because still the radiation. is very prevalent in those areas well the most important thing now for them is to treat those who have been exposed to the very radiation is that what they're doing now is trying to distribute i a team because that. using is used to treat radiation sickness and then they move on to helping those who have been. in shelters who have left their houses and this number is in the hundreds of thousands well over two hundred fifty thousand we're hearing now are left of he left homeless and also there are millions fill three million without electricity another one million without water so that's where the next help goes that's the third step and finally then the rebuilding process again

isn't it in towns entire villages completely wiped out so it's a real big struggle for them but the ones in the twenty kilometer radius around the fukushima power plant number one where the explosion took out so place they have been evacuated and they're now being treated for radiation sickness receiving heidi not that they have got sickness but it just as a precaution and if need be they're being quarantined also in this at the outline number two in the same areas. people are being told to stay indoors within. radius now also being told. given some advice should they have been outside and they should cover their face trying to avoid breathing in any of the radiation so trouble in mouth or nose cover any exposed areas of skin or so when they get inside from coming in from the outside and they should wash and scrub themselves start early and avoid drinking tap water because the fear is that that is also

contaminates that's what dr robert jacobs of research associate professor of nuclear history culture at herat saw a piece in cities says a release of radiation into the atmosphere could lead to serious health problems for worldwide. having studied the history of these incidents in the past i know that this reactor there had been attempts to reduce the pressure inside the reactor core and to cool the reactor to avoid meltdown. to see an explosion as we saw in that building obviously indicates a failure in the efforts. clearly the situation in this reactor it's not under control if there is an explosion about sort that blows the building apart so it would. it's hard to say exactly what it reflects but it would certainly indicate the likelihood of a partial meltdown in the potentiality of formal town clearly any exposure to

radiation at all is bad for the human body and tab for human health there's been warnings already on japanese television and in the region to take really take precautions to minimize exposure to radiation to people are now being told to stay in their homes rather than to evacuate which would be an indicator of the presence of radiation in the atmosphere but it's not a simple matter to keep radiation outside of the house although it will minimize exposures so that people in those areas and the people in the downwind areas are certainly in significant risk having exposures that could lead to health problems depending on the size of the of the releases and the amount of radiation that answers the atmosphere in a nearby atmosphere there's a possibility the areas around the plants could be left. could be left much like the area around turmoil as areas that wouldn't be whipped and it wouldn't be entered that's a worst case scenario if that's the case to contain that area into

a small area as possible is the goal so people there people in those areas should follow the guidance of the government officials but they should definitely take steps to minimize their exposure in any way to radiation if there's a stigma. if you can release the radiation into the atmosphere that can easily go into the upper atmosphere and then spread. in the upper atmosphere around the globe this kind of radiation will typically come from the upper atmosphere was precipitation like rain or snow which makes it if there is a very very significant release into the atmosphere people people certainly in the jet engine region here and potentially even across the pacific ocean would watch all boys exposure to rain over the next week or two. reminding you now of the main news this hour fears of a radiation the japan remain after

a massive explosion of consumer number one nuclear plant it's understood the glasses caused by a failure in the cooling system and not itself the level of radiation in the control room rose to a thousand times higher than normal but the level is now decreasing well there are still concerns of a possible meltdown at one of the plant's reactors however it's thought the container housing it was not damaged by the blast well within the fast few hours another quake this time measuring six on the richter scale hit the area where the plant is the cases and evacuation zone have been imposed stretching for a radius of twenty kilometers or beyond that residents and evacuees are queuing it drinking water because the fears of a contaminated tap apply there are also reports the thirty three people who were evacuated from the area have been exposed to radiation the u.n.

nuclear watchdog is calling on japanese or for a team. with information on the damage and the possible consequences of the blast. well the situation for pushing a plant in seeing comparisons being drawn to the chernobyl nuclear explosion which was the world's worst atomic plant disaster it happened twenty five years ago in ukraine but the effects of the contamination are still being felt today earlier i spoke to our correspondents peter all of it in moscow and. here. well it is really hard to judge what this white smoke was caused by but definitely it reminds us of what happened twenty five years ago quarter of a century in the crania town of chernobyl back then of course it was the u.s.s.r. now it's part of sovereign ukraine the white smoke was indeed coming out of the open a cracked open reactor after the explosion which happened early in the morning on april twenty sixth nine hundred eighty six indeed the one the accident which is now

taking place in japan it looks like just like the chernobyl accident with one exception in japan there's far more of this white smoke coming out of the reactor as we've seen. the different pictures shown by the japanese television all throughout the day it is hard to say what caused this explosion yet we have heard no official explanation so far we've heard a version that it was caused by some explosion of hydrogen cooling systems inside the nuclear facility but it is really hard to say whether this was so i've been to several nuclear plants myself and i've seen those cooling system it's hard to imagine that they could produce an explosion like that as we've seen on the footage from the japanese television so of course we're all waiting for some viable explanation of what the explosion was caused by from the japanese government has

also had to pay to now he's a mosque a for us he's in russia and has experience in dealing with of serious atomic. has any help to japan. well that's right the experience gained in the lessons learned from dealing with the nine hundred eighty six. rusher in the a key seat if it comes to their request going for any help with dealing with the cleanup if the situation at fukushima. no as of yet russia has said she wanted terry in a to japan and promised more thoughts needed however there has been no request for own no football for assistance when it comes to the containing and cleaning up of this kind of you kill or disaster that we see here however that doesn't rule out the possibility of it coming in the future we look to japan's own systems that they have in place will be stretched to the limit at the moment it's not just fukushima that has problems a state of disaster has been declared by many reactors across japan so he just

unease authorities will be stretched to the limit and the possible continues the possibility of outside help being requested especially from countries like russia who have this experience of dealing with and of containing a new nuclear disaster that becomes more and more likely it has cost saving ukraine for us at this stage all the way all the similarities that we know between the incident after. an awful. well obviously this white smoke coming from the reactor building is the only old vs resemblance which we can see between the two incidents twenty five years ago chernobyl and i think a car plant now days that's where the similarities and the situations are basically different simply because what caused the what caused them you know the the fallout internal was caused by a massive human error what is happening now in japan is of course the result of

a natural disaster the earthquake happened which happened on friday and the other big difference and this is a very significant difference between the two events is how. the government has been responding to the to the events obviously twenty five years ago the government of the soviet government kept most of the information secret from the general population in russia as well as from the rest of the world and went on a massive secret campaign to just say guard this information and this was this is something which we cannot see today because the japanese government even though we have conflicting reports coming from the islands of what's happening there and we have no certainty of what caused this loss still the japanese government ordered the evacuation of people from the surrounding areas at the fukushima region but this didn't happen twenty five years ago when fifty four

thousand residents of the town of people next to the chernobyl power plants were kept in the south for more than twenty four hours and this of course caused some damage to them but people were subjected to a great deal of radioactive threat coming from the open reactor of course these mistakes were learned of the mistakes by those made by the soviet government and this is what the japanese government is hopefully trying to avoid right now but clearly as the situation is in trouble and fukushima one are to friends despite what we can see in the pictures from the japanese television. well i would say there are fears of course the need to nail down a. second spring mall that means meltdown itself the nuclear meltdown itself is a very scary thing for all scientists as i've been calling it their worst nightmare ever indeed this down is all about the core of the reactor going into an

uncontrollable state and that's causing and you clear chain reaction first and then a powerful steam explosion like it happened in turn noble this is like a rodeo it's trying to control a crazy high. because nobody knows whether you would be able to get ticket reactor back under control or not this did not happen it should not all this was the result of a failed experiment when the scientists when the personnel of the car station tried to lower the output of the reactor and then bring it to a temporary halt when the reactor started behaving in an uncontrollable fashion some of the personal prestige urgency greater but as we can as we can call it and just forty nine seconds since the start of the experiment the reactor exploded and that's caused the fallout and the contamination of great areas all along the former soviet u.s.s.r. so obviously as we've been hearing from the japanese authorities right now the reactor stays intact it's not being damaged according to the authorities and we

called for the things that such contamination as it happened twenty five years ago and your novel would be avoided this time but of course we have to wait and see what happens next with all this developing story. well when we can through the nuclear accidents or throughout history of course the worst we can call this is the chernobyl disaster of nine hundred eighty six but there have been more than my think. no stranger to atomic emergencies well among the first major nuclear energy incidents was at a testing station in the u.s. state of idaho and steam explosion in one hundred sixty one there was release a small amount of nuclear material but underlined the dangers of the industry will the well known three mile island pennsylvania in one nine hundred seventy nine lines or a partial quote. inside a pressurized water we are japan's first major incident occurred in nine hundred ninety nine it be uranium processing facility north of tokyo workers there added

a new directly into a precipitation tank well two people were killed after radiation rosewell a bar a missile limits japan's most deadly problem state was a steam explosion at the mahatma nuclear power plant in two thousand and four four people died and eighteen were seriously injured. what was the theme and then a thank you professor universe thank how the design of the team of riyadh could potentially contain the damage if the west case in. this reactor has cooled entirely by water. a milk down is simply when the nuclear materials cannot be cooled and the temperature rises in the containment area and the reactor materials themselves to the point at which they destroy the reactor that surrounds them of course these temperatures have to reach about five hundred degrees celsius

for the metal and for the uranium itself probably in the order of a hundred to one thousand degrees celcius. no good news is that that in the daiichi reactor is entirely water so a material venting into the atmosphere will likely just steam radioactive steam in the case of sharon noble the reactor was moderated by graphite and ground. holds the radiation and spread so much further as dust and gas so. that was the significant problem with sharon noble the the neutron moderator in the airplane that reactor was different and the radiation could spread much further at the daiichi site there are i believe six active reactors all of which have shut down and again i don't have all the information but at the moment it appears as though reactor building number one is the site of the explosion now this is the oldest of

the six reactors at daiichi has built in one nine hundred seventy nine so it suggests that the oldest structure on the site was also the weakest people are being advised to stay in their homes not drink water turn off their air conditioners so it sounds like the government is is apparently prefer significant nuclear event. well the european union fell during a panel of experts to look into the consequences on the nuclear power plant in japan if we all think aging aids which apparently how to deal with the tragedy let me tell flatter than a bushel now in brussels for us daniel how worried are european leaders about what's happening. right now. the international atomic energy agency the un's nuclear watchdog says it's in full response mode after the accident and the thousands of people who've been evacuated from the surrounding

areas in japan is that it's urgently seeking information from the japanese authorities about the reasons for the blast and says it's in constant contact with mutual sororities there and is ready to provide assistance when asked e.u. countries have also offered humanitarian aid japan while it concludes its investigation is holding fire for the moment on international assistance we've seen the european commission call for an expert panel to provide reasons for this blast and the consequence is the possible fallout of course european countries e.u. countries have some of the world's largest nuclear facilities france for example a leading nuclear power and there are concerns that this should not have been allowed to happen the issued a report that twenty percent of the world's nuclear plants are in areas of significant seismic activity and in two thousand and seven there was an earthquake in japan which should have acted as

a wake up call experts here say. risks and threats of such an accident happening. daniel and many. of their life brothels. ok well this is artie live from moscow our continuing coverage of course of the tragedy that's still unfolding in japan over seven hundred people are now confirmed dead after the worst earthquake in the country's history the powerful eight point nine magnitude shock said a massive tsunami wave crashing into the islands northeast most of the dead are believed to have drowned huge waves far in them sweeping away inspired villages son of the deluge towns are left with barely a trace of any buildings in one of the coastal towns around nine and a half thousand people remain unaccounted for more than three hundred thousand people have been evacuated from their homes in northern japan in the capital

millions of commuters were left stranded overnight while others it was after train services that were suspended police say two hundred fifteen thousand people have fled their homes and headed south according to government officials over a million homes in the country remain without rules and electricity a tsunami warning still in place for japan. well earlier we spoke to an eyewitness he was in tokyo where the massive earthquake started to shake the country. it started off. as one of the regular brits who've been here five years and the experience of them and it got more and more intense as it got more intense didn't do much more. that this was actually the big turkey it works great which people have been predicting it's overdue for the past few decades we have three great things but we actually are quite lucky all that we experience was a few broken plates and

a few free notes but after the amount we were quake we were quite ok the transport system was completely shut down after the quake yesterday so thousands tens of thousands of people stranded across the city lots of people walking home from their offices to back home in the evening those whose homes are too fast sleeping in their offices in train stations and we are in the center of town and you queue which is to hear is business train station and there are still queues of people trying to get tickets to get on to the looted number of trains are running to get back to their loved ones people are able to move around the city on some of the metro lights but the impression i got was that most people are actually staying home saying close to family staying close to the television set to hear the developments or there are now fears that the aftermath of the explosion and japan is focused shiba nuclear plants and may affect russians far east the region situated close to japan could be vulnerable if the radiation spread well the coral

islands and the pacific portable start have also been threatened by high waves following a friday's earthquake here going to get a job is on the rocks alive in the sun and in just two hours flight from tokyo caging people's reaction. well it's not in the immediate proximity of course and it's not yet clear how serious consequences of a possible radioactive contamination for the local residents could be but what we're seeing is that the accident at fukushima and this recent explosion is definitely adding to local residents worries will shortly after japan's natural disaster on friday their main wars were about ten other tsunami which could hear the they're opposed to the one which could be more furious more strong one but what they're worried now is about a possible radioactive contamination we saw residents who were going to

pharmacists. searching for their own geiger counters to measure the radiation levels and. that which is actually quite hard to do on a weekend unless you work in the hospitals and you're as or as a doctor you while emergency officials are saying that they will keep the public updated on the latest and say that there will be enough time to vacated necessary now for a cause reports of whether. those who live on the coral islands which is just several miles away from japan's coast we know that it was eleven thousand people have been already vacated to see the areas which could be flooded and rescuers are urging local residents to move back in land and to shelter at about the sea level. while we also know from the fisherman that despite reports had been saying that waves did not reach heights evolve a meter around the curial arlen's we know that the waves were as high as three

meters on saturday morning. i remind our breaking news this hour fears over radiation leaking japan remain a massive explosion at the fukushima one nuclear plant some two hundred kilometers north of the. thank you no it's understood the blast was caused by a failure in the cooling system and not the reactor itself which was not damaged officials say radiation levels for women since the explosion and there is no immediate danger but it follows friday's eight point nine magnitude quake which triggered a massive tsunami that spread destruction dozens of kilometers inland over seven hundred people on out in the desert it's thought that number could reach of more than a thousand and one the postal town are none of the hospitals and people remain unaccounted for rescuers at the scene of that report scenes of utter devastation that inspired

religious ross the way it sounds ravaged by the tsunami. we'll be keeping you updated on the situation in japan as a story continues to develop and you stay with us here on r.t. . i i am.