you can narrow down fears drive up to two more explosions at the fukushima power plant in japan wall radiation has been released and has reached four hundred times the annual legal limit with reports of the container protecting one of the reactors being challenged if all is lost to other reacts is that because big since friday's catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. if you recall saw the devastation in japan is being felt with always under hostiles and people confirmed dead following friday's mega quake and tsunami rescue teams from countries including russia are helping with the search for an estimated fifteen thousand still missing. and in other news

this hour with gadhafi forces singing you regaining ground in the east of libya concerns grow over the next in the news a condemned by the global community takes over the country by saying that. he is from russia and around the world this is all see was need you to chicago but thanks for joining us to our top story now japan's prime minister has addressed the nation as fears intensify about a possible nuclear meltdown at a pall plant strong by last friday's catastrophic ass quake and tsunami the company running the it's a shame a nuclear power plant has admitted meltdown is a possibility and there have been two more explosions at the complex with rising fears of radio active leakage with reports of damage to the structure protecting one of the two reactions subject to the last of blasts and radiation levels have risen outside. times the annual legal limit for explosions at reactions has taken

place at the long since friday's natural disaster damaged the cooling systems that several people were injured in the explosions up to one hundred and sixty could have been exposed to radiation since the thousand explosions citizen northeastern japan on saturday and have been trying to water to cool the we have a compass a vast catastrophic down. but not very real threat of a nuclear meltdown at the focus of a power plant that's according to the prime minister now can you just address the nation states warning people in a kilometer radius of plants and things in question and all this you know situation already because there's a real threat and they're worried that there could be a serious radiation major radiation leaks from from the reactor this explosion of reactor previously intact until this morning and that major worry now is because

they believe the answer is also has been damaged if that is the case and major nuclear test remands that it's radiation could be pouring into it be honest i know and also been a fire explosion the fourth reactor again previously intact it wasn't actually even operating or it can't be earthquake you had been shut down before then the fire has . prompted another radiation. leak as according to the prime minister. in this. interview with the prime minister does warm and is the. radiation leakage. from the crimes solution or regarding the. major radiation leak on top of. the company from a solution which you cannot exactly. as follows two previous. that's the sort of

cost of actually. going out and saying it's. going and radiation levels are going to suffer exclusion this morning. i suppose it'll. make the situation the majority of it forty six. hundred eighty six thousand people already. people living in that region is it it's a link to all such a serious radiation leak. and right now let's get some expert opinion on the situation when i joined by christopher simons an associate professor at the international christian university in tokyo mr simas thank you very much indeed for joining us not so there's been a full explosion of these plans what's the spread of radioactive contamination with

reports of radiation a hundred times the annual legal limit of the plant. fortunately we lost mr christopher simons but we do promise to bring him back as soon as we fix this problem right now emergency services remain on high alert and russia's far east region close to northern japan and they say that big danger of the possible radioactive cloud reaching the area is minimal as the wind is expected to blow towards the pacific ocean but despite that some tourists and foreign workers are said to be leaving the area and our correspondent you can think of has more from this one in region that one hundred kilometers north of japan. the emergences ministry say they have reinforced checks of the radiation levels here and say that as of now they stand up less than the average for this area but not residents of this region choose to leave we had seen people sitting on their backs today early

morning at the lobby of the hotel and they were desperate to get the the first flight they could leave to moscow and other cities of russia as for the locals here most of them try not to panic and to run about their businesses as usual and they also say that features they're now seeing in japan look so familiar to what they had been through several years ago. this is how the earth trust looks like you can hardly see the needle tracing the way form as a hard morning. is listening for every beat but things can change quickly. in the real time a new earthquake is here in japan this is the wave trace it's strong it has a magnitude of six. this is what another quake of magnitude nine translates into. your eleven is not new to quakes has

been running the say six station in russia spar is for over twenty years now but even for him friday is advance came as a painful and vivid reminder he and his old time friend survived an earthquake of similar intensity and syleena nine hundred ninety five they don't need t.v. reports to know what the people of japan are experiencing now for you it was a strange sense of vertigo ceilings were caving in the first thing i did i rushed to my daughters i grabbed the older one while my wife took our newborn and rushed into the street frank god will live on the first floor. ury two was lucky to back here quickly but dozens of their friends were buried alive. morning drop to the instant and if the gods were in a car with us we arrived and there was nothing turn was no longer there we would start hauling in their fists and couldn't say

a word or used to be streets with houses had been turned into just. then if you go risk earthquake was russia's most destructive in a hundred years over two thousand people died the town was never a built but the seesmic station was reopened it was shut down shortly after the collapse of the soviet union and ury was left without top of the earthquake changed all that not only was the station reinstated dozens of new ones have been built these time small school calls you read several times a day. we're always on high alert hopefully we perform better than the americans our stations was the first to report the earthquake was so quickly felt insecure lena's this is the closest part of russia to japan and while it's an army threat has receded there's no relief for the people here or the danger now one of the

nuclear catastrophe everyone here understands that in the worst case scenario it will take a radioactive cloud less than an hour to reach the coast of russia exiting the virtue of r.t.e. from the supply region and our correspondent in japan ivor that it is standing by that hello there ivor can you hear us now. oh yeah all right great. ok i'll just. try actually we're now heading straight for all the foreign journalists journalists can cross wanting. to break and get. out of here because of the very real now. of a nuclear meltdown at the fukushima plant and a major radiation leak the whole country already here. in tokyo they've measured small amounts of just substance in the french embassy has warned that. radiation couldn't hit you in ten hours and that three hundred kilometers south of the.

sun and so. we've come across heading for the exit now we're doing very unwise to stick around. and this morning it was plan. previously in fact we had the latest was that a source of reactor number four which is used to house used fuel rods and what's significant about is. normally a reactor and seventy fuel rods which contain radioactive substances this one hundred seven hundred eighty three for the greater potential of a serious radiation leak managed to put the fire out right now. the strain still very serious because the explosion early this morning again are a previously intact nuclear reactor that actually damaged the container and that's complete radiation levels around fukushima so right to four hundred times for maximum level one normally it's almost

a year. actually prompted the prime minister and the procure electric power company for the first time to come out and address the nation and the possibility of a potential nuclear meltdown and they've warned residents in a clumsy radius to stay indoors not side because if they do they risk a. sensual. exposure to radiation levels could be catastrophic so it seems like we could be on the verge of a major meekly disaster here in japan that could affect the whole country and potentially spritzer oxer as well as we just. want to really take it over in interest of. dad the moment our people panicking has anyone been evacuated. not here in. the local residents are doing they're queuing up outside any school. still selling produce because there's very little actually in most fields

so they're trying to stock up in case the radiation. because it does not have. a long period of time pretty seems like you but actually it's not much people can do awfully big concrete so that's what all the foreign journalists were doing the heading for the nearest airport trying to get the sort of flight. right i have a day of reporting there live from japan i thank you very much indeed and right now we can go back to christopher assignments who's an expert on the situation in japan and i say said professor at the international christian university talk here mr silence thank you very much again for your time so there's been a false explosion i do think regime a nuclear plant as you know was this rather radioactive contamination or with reports of radiation of one hundred times the annual legal in there said the plant yes good morning yes there is a serious risk of contamination at this point the contamination is probably limited

to the fukushima area. in the event of an im event such as this the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere from a steam explosion will be quite large but it will be relatively contained to a geographical area around the plant as we saw yesterday the exclusion zone has been increased from ten kilometers to twenty kilometers and people inside that zone will certainly face an increased risk of radiation the people who will have the most danger will be the people who are working to stop this disaster at the moment that is the emergency workers and military personnel around the plant now they will be likely receiving quite high doses of radiation and the rest of the country and grabs the world should certainly feel quite grateful to the work that they are doing to stop this meltdown. and that and also there are six reactor that the

fukushima and that have been exposed and so far i thought if it takes out of control could blast happened at the other two and they're all kind of radiation threats could we could we be facing it set. yes as of this morning the most serious threat is a patch for pushing at daiichi reactor number two and we heard quite worrying last night that at some point yesterday and perhaps for some amount of time the reactor rods that is the rods containing the nuclear fuel material the uranium and in the case of reactor number three marks which also contains plutonium that these rods were exposed to the air for some time and reactor number two situation is now the most serious of the four reactors that have had problems so far. the other two reactors that unit haven't had a problem so far i can't speculate on whether there will be explosion at exit at

those reactors as i understood it reactor number four where a small fire occurred yesterday was already shut down this indicates a number of possibilities the possibility and it seems most likely is that. thora these are having to focus on the reactors whose temperatures are the highest and that may require divertissement of coolant and crew materials such as generator power and pump and power away from the other reactors so yes the situation does seem to be getting worse the situation at reactor number two it to killer is very bad if those reactor rods were exposed to the air that is if the level of coolant in the reactor which is which is now seawater as i understand it they're using seawater to cool this reaction if the level of coolant in the

reactor pressure vessel the r.p.v. falls below a certain level the tops of those rods will be exposed to the air when those rods are exposed to the air there is a super heating of the air and any water great program on them that causes oxidize ation essentially very rapid rusting which produces hydrogen and that hydrogen is what as we have seen has caused the explosions in reactors one and three and now most recently reacted to so the potential of a more serious meltdown event at the moment is centered around reactor number two this is a significant problem and we have to keep watching the situation quite closely yes and war can be done also the authorities doing about this situation. well from two hundred kilometers to the south in tokyo which is where i am at the moment

i can say that the authorities are doing everything they can or seem to be doing everything they can and taking all the right steps to contain this disaster there are some concerns that the most immediate concern which has come to us in tokyo over the past twelve hours last night i spent quite a long night is that the amount of fuel available in the north that is gasoline and diesel fuel is is not sufficient in other words the north is simply running out of fuel and diesel fuel is one of the keys to resolving this situation and there are at the moment i believe a number of fire trucks and fire emergency vehicles pumping water into these exposed or damaged reactor buildings these pumping trucks have to continue working there are also diesel generators which are pumping a mixture of seawater and boron that is more boric acid poor and or gas it

is a very good neutron absorbers so it's good that slowing that reaction down the sea water and boric acid is being pumped into these reactors and those pumps must continue working it's very difficult for normal people to imagine the amount of pressure water pressure that's required in this situation we think of high pressure water as coming out of a garden hose or a police water cannon well the amount of water pressure required in this situation is extremely high because those reactor cores are so hot as the water hits them it turns very rapidly into steam and that steam has to be moved away from the reactor rods and more water put into its place so a constant stream of water has to be maintained so the main the true things you need. to keep the situation under control or a good supply of sea water in this case since that's what's being used and

a good supply of fuel that is diesel diesel fuel another based fuels now i heard yesterday that hits which the authority to to bring seawater closer to the reactor essentially a reservoir from which they could draw seawater into the parts i was running into i hope that water level has now they have. placed or brought back up to to a safe level but the fuel problem is quite serious i think perhaps i don't know what the japanese authorities have requested in terms of help from the international community but i can imagine one of the things opera most on their list of priorities in terms of aid from other countries is simply the movement of fuel to the reactor area whether by airlift or by pumping by pumping truck i believe the roads in the area are probably quite badly damaged so some of the fuel

may have to be brought in by helicopter and that will of course be a slow and difficult process as long as the emergency pumps and fire vessels in the area can keep working and the reactors can continue to be cooled of course another problem is a number of the fire trucks brought to the area were knocked out by one of the blasts yesterday i believe one or two of the trucks were disabled so that's another problem and that he also mentioned to parents prime minister has addressed the nation about a possible nuclear meltdown of the power plants what do you think the impact of his words are could this right pineal party go do some people doubt that the japanese government is getting the whole story. yes this is a question the prime minister had to make a difficult personal decision when he said there is a nuclear crisis going on. and the situation i believe his words were that the

situation was quite hazardous this was in reference to reactors number one and three which was where the problem was centered let's see two days ago or three days ago that is on saturday and sunday as i said the situation at reactor number two is now the most dangerous i don't believe the government is hiding anything and i think there is certainly a tendency in the population towards suspicion and paranoia i think that suspicion is greater i'm on the foreign community and among the local japanese community in a crisis the japanese people tend to be very cohesive they tend to listen to their leaders and trust their leaders and in this case i believe but that trust is justified now of course what the government can't give the people is a rolling account of every fact and every piece of scientific information coming out of. area and this is. a problem i'm having i mean i don't have

all of the immediate facts for example it's morning there were reports that around reactor number two. the containment vessel was damaged and that was the word which the news agencies such as n.h. kate used japanese news agencies now i don't know whether that means there has been damage to the reactor pressure vessel that is the immediate vessel containing the nuclear and control rods or cracks perhaps in the concrete containment vessel which is outside the pressure vessel and both of those situations would be extremely serious so the prime minister has been quite honest i mean it's not an easy thing to do to tell the population that a serious accident or a serious incident is in progress and he has done that and i think it's a risk. you know we all communicate to the japanese people and to foreigners living

in japan the situation is serious but the authorities are attempting to be as honest as they can with us that's right so and also to plan of course as one of the most technologically advanced nations we know that yet we seem to be in the midst of an unfolding nuclear disaster so they overcome this dreadful situation with world experts helping to of course. yes i think that situation can be overcome by the number of friends and colleagues have been contacting us and other people asking whether it's time to evacuate whether people in tokyo and the south should think about moving away from their proximity to the north or increasing their distance from the north and at the moment i think it's fair to say that it's not necessary if the winds change yes some nuclear radiation will move in the direction of tokyo as i mentioned yesterday that radiation will hopefully be

in a form of very light isotopes so the danger to people in tokyo and the so that at the moment is really quite limited the situation in the north is very bad and i believe yes the government will require help from foreign experts from the international atomic energy agency from foreign governments who can supply material such as fuel and expert advice perhaps even helicoptering in new physical generators and and diesel generators and pumps but over situation is a very bad it can be brought under control and due to the nature of these light water reactors it is inherently much of a less dangerous situation than say charitable or the scale reactor in the united kingdom which had a major event in the one nine hundred fifty s. . right christopher reporting their life and talk at the senate thank you very much

and. thank you. and recounting the main events from japan where there's reports of force explosion as a reaction of the fukushima power plant it follows a slow blast just a few hours ago at another reality said the complex those sources say that more radiation has been released with levels soaring to hundred times normal in the deepening crisis japan's prime minister addressing the nation says more radioactive leaks are likely the company running the fukushima nuclear power plant admitted that the chances of a meltdown had risen following the third explosion there are also reports of damage to the structure protecting the reality time such an accident as happened in egypt and the two explosions in the past few hours means have been for at the nuclear plant since friday's natural disaster which damaged to insistence that several people were injured in the early explosions and up to one hundred sixty could have been exposed to radiation since the first explosion hit the facility northeastern japan on saturday and unis have been trying to use seawater to cool the reactors at

the complex to avert a catastrophic nuclear meltdown the events were triggered by friday's mega quake which wasn't followed by a giant tsunami that left thousands dead official data torsos start stands at more than two hundred two thousand and four hundred but this figure is expected to soar to possibly as high as ten thousand as rescue teams from several countries including russia continue this search for the many missing. and of course we'll be bringing you updates on the situation in japan as well as the acts that opinion and analysis starts the program so stay change. even now with the strength of colonel gadhafi is offensive continues to overwhelm rebel forces across the country that have been reports of fresh and strikes by his military as france hosts talks on the imposition of a no fly zone over libya politically has the latest from tripoli. we know now that government troops have been trying throughout the day to retake the town of the

lara which is waste of the capital city triple the there they've been using tanks and artillery as part of a stepped up campaign to rid the western front of tripoli from drivel forces but at the same time fighting in the east of the country does continue there the government has been pounding the oil town although there have also been clashes in the town of which has been lost with rebel strongholds before the town of being ghazi which is essentially where the opposition forces have behaved courses now we have been hearing reports of divisions in the gadhafi forces according to opposition leaders some sixty thousand people have predicted that is in this thing all because of the army the soldiers that are out there on the ground now it's not clear whether or not they have joined the rebel forces in fact most people here suspect they haven't but rather a feeling that they do not want to be firing on these opposition fighters the same from the ground and suki the fear among the rebels is that in the coming days gadhafi will could unleash the full force of his army which he has done so far what

we saw most of my anger is that britain and france have pushed up cause to implement a no fly zone over libya they are calling for the quick crofting of a u.n. resolution but this will need to be approved by the u.n. security council and at this stage it does not seem clear that it in fact will get this approval but u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton made it on monday with the french president nicolas a cozy she also held and i'm usually meeting with the leadership of the rebel opposition the fonts at this stage is the only country to officially recognize the libyan opposition as the official voice of this country and many of the international community and certainly here on the ground say that kyra's acted rashly with very short sightedness in making this decision the questions that are being asked all that if gadhafi does remain in power how will france behave with the. the regime in the future essentially how the international community that has

denounced him paid and negotiate with him on the flip side of the coin if gadhafi had to go it's not very clear who would be the new leadership here many people fearing that they will be some kind of a leadership vacuum because we need to remember that the opposition remains disjointed they are equipped and they certainly are ill prepared to take over the running of this country. stay with us see we'll of course bring you more on the developing situation in japan the latest headlines are coming up in just a few moments.