the situation critical of japan's stricken nuclear power plants with cooling systems failing in all six reactors and threats of a nuclear meltdown rising to the highest level since the explosions at the facility began. the signs of growing distress among the people of japan as fears rise the authorities are not telling the whole truth and the situation is getting out of control and. panic you just makes people all the more uncertain the believe you can't trust the information to be indifferent to. the death toll from friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami climbs to over three thousand with over seven thousand considered still missing. and the nuclear drama unfolding in japan prompts

experts worldwide to question the overreliance on technology that often proves more dangerous than health. life in our studios here in central moscow this is r.t. with twenty four hours a day japanese officials confirm radioactive materials have leaked into the atmosphere following an explosion and fire at reactor number four at the fukushima power plant so far is said to have damaged an area used to store spent nuclear fuel with reports that staff are struggling to cool it down a situation at all six reactors is said to be critical after the only two remaining cooling systems failed following the devastating quake and tsunami blasted facility number two which occurred this morning that reportedly damaged

a vessel the reactor engineers have been using seawater to cool the reactors in an attempt to avert a nuclear disaster i've been it reports now from outside the danger zone in japan. yes it seems like the whole compound the entire nation is gripped by this situation at once very nervous and it could. we could we are on the cusp of a nuclear attack in it could tip into. an absolute disaster here and no one really knows which way to turn because following the fourth explosion earlier today over overall same explosion of the day before the explosion at the nuclear power plant they talked four hundred times that those things one would expect to receive in a year which is a very critical and harmful level indeed so the situation is very tense here and all this follows the events of today which seem to have just gone from bad to worse said two explosions this morning at two previously intact reactors and then two more the final two reactors of the six out of the one we're hearing this evening

now console critical condition they had it have been explosions there but they have also had their cooling mechanisms knocked out early can't cool down the reactors and that's what led to the first two explosions on saturday no one yesterday and the situation suddenly got a whole lot more critical when up a couple of notches with the second explosion today because of that all the reactor actually ours is a seven hundred eighty spent fuel rods all of which containing radioactive material normally a nuclear reactor actually contains around sick if you will so there was a lot more potential greater potential for a much larger radiation leak and this prompted fears of a major an eclipse tast free and potentially again meltdown and also fuelled by the british prime minister's address to the nation telling people to stay indoors even this advice coming from the government now even annual laundry indoors because they

don't want anyone going outside at all and has prompted foreign news crews all the ones are facing today head for the exits are now actually in the gutter which is on the west coast. because we feel that this area is much safer to be in and also there's a lot in a lot of distrust about the information coming out from her took electric power company owned power and also the government not only a month or a newsgroup but also months present here for a residence i've spoken to big they are also trying to get to the airport yet they're the first plane out of the country because they don't feel that the country is actually telling the truth they think that they really mean alliance and saying that. decision is very bad and they think that a crime is really doesn't want to fuel panic but on the streets there is panic in the eat. there in japan well dr robert jacobs from the hiroshima peace institute says judging by how the situation is unfolding it seems the government has little

control over this nuclear crisis. it certainly appears that we're not getting the full story in the sense that every day we are told that the situation is under control and that efforts are succeeding in reducing the risk yet every day we see the situation getting further and further out of control each day we we wait here in japan to a much more grim situation than the day before and it's hard to imagine i think that it's hard to give accurate information i think it's hard for the government to get accurate information but i think that there's a growing distrust among people in japan that the information that we're receiving is not informing us to the extent that we would like it to in it that doesn't reduce panic it just makes people all the more uncertain and when they believe they can't trust fully the information to being given this intuition is very much difficult to control there's no doubt about it you you have a site there you've had four explosions and significant radioactive releases at the

site of the reactors so you're having extremely high levels of radiation in that local area making it extremely difficult for people to conduct the kind of work that may be useful you had three aftershocks and over seven to go on the richter scale made it difficult so in a sense what you have is you have people trying to repair an automobile damaged but that's moving at one hundred miles an hour without brakes or steering so the work that might be done that might be effective is getting increasingly problematic to perform. this is r.t. broadcasting around the world and if you're in the affected areas you can always share your experiences by logging onto our facebook account you have to do is just . news one. there are page also has the latest videos and notices and news on the situation in japan as well as all our other top stories now if you do know something that you think the rest of the world should be hearing about you log

on to our team news on facebook good to hear from. are the normal levels of radiation have been detected in the japanese capital raising fears among the local population our correspondent is in tokyo. i have three that have been raised but not significant we are not presenting any need to danger to residents it's happened it's capital of course and the same or you have to remember that the levels. around the farms are such that thousands of people have already been vaccinated and tens of thousands have been told to keep their doors and windows shut and do not leave their homes so at some point there were parts that are going to go to the levels of just north of tokyo and have been thirty three times the norm so that is the situation that we're looking at right now and of course the i am saying that radiation levels are going to are going

to. rise in the near future as radiation reaches so we're keeping close watch on what we're going to have any further reaction from the japanese authorities. in the japanese kept so of me actually rise as well we also know that. more than one hundred thousand. have been released by i.a.e.a. and sent off to the areas affected it was twenty five hundred people have been confirmed dead thousands are missing so the number is probably going to the number it's going to change in the next couple of days at this point of course the main concern is with the possible really. clear meltdown and that is what everybody is keeping a close eye on and of course the the rescue efforts are still continuing there of

course the trees various countries helping japan in that regard there's not that many people out in the streets it's very very quiet it's almost a morals feeling you would imagine tokens of the city bursting with lights and exhibit either is hardly anybody out on the streets right now people that are out there all wearing masks. well so there have been reports of also shortages of sound have been reported people are increasingly buying such things as water based products and there are some other things out in securing off their cells but then again they're going to get very orderly fashion and now they're telling obviously something is in the air so to speak and. it's probably here and prevention its people are still reading court or what's going to happen next. a reporter in the russian regions close to japan residents and emergency services are on high alert this despite seeing the radiation levels and normal and the danger of a possible radioactive cloud reaching the russian coast is minimal however some

tourists and foreign workers leaving the area correspondent is in the second region some one hundred kilometers north of japan. emergences officials for this region haven't turned supplied chat sport radiation levels here in the civilian region talk to representatives of the ministry they showed us a car which they quit with professional driver meters which would measure radiation levels at different places around the city so the margin says ministry here assure us that as of tuesday morning there is no increase in radiation levels and there is no cause for the residents to plan. in the worst case scenario locals to make. you know there's no threat to the health of the second people radiation reading certain normal levels. meanwhile russia's dependence ministry is such that it is ready to send out its personnel from the poor islands any time soon this is the

closest part of this region to not japan and also sales of io jeans have rocketed in pharmacies across the city obviously people want to make sure that they are well prepared in case that there is a radioactive emission threat from what we know from people we've spoken to is that they are not quite sure whether japanese are playing down the throats of a nuclear catastrophe or not planes leave the international airport of usual civilians because into the shuttle and from what we know there are no edition no lights a range of people here indeed are not new to natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes but with a new clear threat in place it seems that they have to be prepared for the known and a lot depends on the wind it is very crucial so what people should be closely monitoring now is whether for cos it will take a radioactive cloud if there is an explosion inside a core of a nuclear reactor less than a day to reach this part of russia the russian monitoring agencies reported so far

there has been no rise in radiation levels the way you can follow r.t. on twitter we follow the of a. and it's there in russia's far east and post all the latest developments there i find that r.t. underscore that's our twitter account. moscow expanding its aid to japan with the number of russian emergency workers involved in rescue operations expected to grow over the next few days the countries also boosting its humanitarian aid and energy supplies are he has more now from the russian capital. russia already has rescue workers on the ground in japan and the numbers of rescue workers expected to reach around one hundred eighty over the next few days those rescue workers that have been sent out there was referred to by the emergencies

ministry as an autonomous rescue team that means that they're pretty much self-sufficient they are ready to work as soon as they hit the ground now this is a big help for the the forces in japan who are stretched to the limit following the earthquake and tsunami that they don't require that these russian rescues don't require any additional help from him so it allows them to get all of what they do in straightaway and the russians can get on with their job now they'll be looking for anything will still trapped under rubble many people still missing following this series of disasters the sacred place in japan but they're also bringing she wanted tarion aid so looking at ten some shelters for those that lost their homes food water as well as medicines all basics of human life that are needed there now there's also a team of russian people physicists that's all ready to go to japan should they be needed russia has pledged as much support as they possibly give to japan and said this is all really the japanese authorities have to do is ask and rusher is ready

and willing to provide that support to them now over the weekend we heard russia pledged quite a bit of energy a defeat aids to. be upping the supply of coal to the country as well as fighting one hundred fifty thousand tons of liquid gas on providing electricity directly to japan byard under water table well the situation and the continuing crisis there has caused many countries around the world to review their own nuclear programs. russia has said that their nuclear program is safe perfectly safe it will become to new day to be used and they also reiterated through sylvia love the russian foreign minister that the pushchair nuclear power plant. in iran which russian built is also say fans may be able to withstand an earthquake the sounds of the shots for our cooperation with iran in construction of the plant so we're following the high standards for safety the standards are set by the i.a.e.a.

not iran and the un energy watchdog monitors that the entire facility is under the full oversight of the agency and this guarantees not only technical safety but also protection from seismic activity. control the situation continues to deteriorate in fukushima it's the high like the the inability really the lack of control that mankind has over technology when the forces of nature come into play because now here report from my colleague alexia share scheme is in kiev. it was a failed experiment that led to history's biggest nuclear disaster in april nine hundred eighty six the chernobyl reactor exploded as a result of the wrong individuals being in the wrong place at the wrong time. they had very poor knowledge of the physics of the reactor they knew the manual and what buttons to push but that's it they knew nothing of the reactor physics and

personnel drilled the reactor into a state it was out of control while the authorities clearly knew who to blame for the fallout even the soviet union stop scientists were at a loss as to what to do in the days of the catastrophe unfolded. station as a mission for. this was something unseen before a nuclear power station with flames and smoke over it was a poor of a century on history seems to be repeating in japan despite the authorities claims there of having the situation under control the fukushima nuclear power plant has already seen by explosions and that's despite advanced sea systems which the chernobyl reactor never had before you. the reaction was completely false he means. the reactors happened to be pretty and this is very obvious if.

you see the this is. that such a situation is unfolding in one of the world's most technologically advanced countries has heightened the sense of alarm internationally and some experts say one should look into how the japanese have been dealing with nuclear physics to get clues as to their continuing difficulties in dealing with a disaster so the technology is dead he told. the society the government the regulators believe that the technology can be operated safely but there's a built in psychological complacency if you're operating something that saw an arab league interest when you go to work every day do you keep thinking about how dangerous that technology is that would be over time rather damaging psychologically so in other words the convinced themselves but they've mastered this technology and unfortunately with nuclear power there's no second chance the

japanese nuclear drama is certainly not the first case of lands over reliance and took knowledge you can be a dangerous friend and one mishandled can strike in disastrous fashion we have always seen this with these what they call tech which is you remember last year there was a massive oil spill in the gulf of mexico again we had a very competent famous company that seemed to know what it was doing but they simply hadn't planned for conjuncture conditions that would create a disaster so this is the human condition we simply are able it seems to handle these technologies are probably not ready for them the nightmare that the chernobyl reactor became was eventually sealed off within the massive concrete sume called the circle for guess the catastrophe provided valuable lessons in how to deal with the reactor disaster but also stern warnings about the dangers of nuclear energy what new lessons will be learned and what implications they will have for

nuclear technology the world nervously waits to see alexey russia's ski party. club from the institute of world economy and international relations says the consequences of the nuclear crisis in japan could affect the world on a global scale. russia has done a great job fighting the. disaster in chernobyl and then fighting the consequences first of all the fallout that happened across some brush regions and russia can offer a lot of expertise in fighting those consequences and also all the russians understand very well the magnitude of the disaster and you know our presence in the situation for all the trashing prime minister vladimir putin immediately offered all the little the systems that would ship them colleagues and even the shipment all for liquid gets the amount of radiation being released now and the amount of radiation that will be released in the coming future is so great that actually global bertha

acted in all of the disaster model when only one poll unit was affected you know this really should cover the whole glory so the magnitude of the moon disaster cannot be predicted now but definitely is going to be one of the worst disasters in world history and well of course you can be on top of the developments there in japan with the twitter page and further details emerge japanese police now say the number of confirmed dead has risen to over three thousand and the number of missing has climbed to over seven thousand that's the latest twitter page that a half a million people have been displaced and in sheltered accommodation at the moment where you can get an instant update i thought twitter account and that is r t underscore. what a crisis in japan a spot fears in europe of similar incidents taking place there the e.u. has over one hundred nuclear power plants with energy ministers having already

health crisis talks in brussels what is down your bushel is there for us. the emergency response meeting here in brussels has been raised from experts of ministerial level that means all twenty seven e.u. energy ministers have been called to brussels to really called an emergency response concerting to the e.u. energy commissioner says we need to see if we can provide an energy policy for the e.u. that avoids nuclear energy of course it's the flute it's really a change from the traditional energy policy of many countries in the european union which was to increase its nuclear capacities because italy for example is a big e.u. country which is starting from scratch a big nuclear program france belgium here also big nuclear programs but now there is increasing concern about the safety obviously of nuclear reactors and there is growing public opposition to that now there was a demonstration of around sixty thousand people in germany near for nuclear

reactors there and if to give you a flavor of the sentiment here in brussels let me just quote from the portuguese state secret if environments he said in the light of the nuclear meltdown in japan member states need to reconsider their energy policy and related security measures and nuclear power is neither a safe option nor is it sustainable the one hundred plus nuclear plants across the european union and now conducting stress tests to see whether a similar accident could happen in the european union well as the situation in japan involves the world's nuclear powers have to rethink their policies to prevent similar attacks or freeze in the future and that's opinion rich or richard thornburgh he's the former governor of pennsylvania union from a three mile island accident back in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine in his interview with r.t. is coming up in the next hour here's a brief preview for you. certainly in the united states i know and i suspect in

other areas where plants have been built anywhere near. that they're rethinking their process they don't want to become another job and in that sense they're all going to stop and take a deep breath and look at the consequences of this when they're fully available. i don't think they're going to abandon their present commitment to nuclear power but i think that represents a step backward in terms of their desire to build more nuclear plants. let's bring it up take a moment i'll be back with a summary of the main news stories in about six and a half minutes from now in the meantime we got the business update with me after a short break stay with us here in moscow.

oh you're watching business with me concerns about the state of japan's economy has been rising as the extent of devastation becomes clear although the quake. pounds and dust you heartland the shock waves have been felt throughout the business sector power supply is critical in the country. and had to stop production because with eleven fifty four power stations out of action they are running out of energy carmakers shipbuilders technology companies worldwide short of supplies after the sauce to damage the oil refineries that's having a knock on effect. forming at petrol pumps. the future of nuclear power is again under serious consideration following the events that have unfolded at one of japan's nuclear stations germany has pledged to shut down seven since its whereas

other you countries are looking at alternative energy sources but russia has stepped up its commitment to jointly develop a new nuclear power plant in belarus because look. we are facing a crisis related to what is happening in japan which will certainly influence the global economy and we intend to go ahead with our plans to build a nuclear power plant and will reduce the project we are going to develop it will encompass the leader c.v.t. and technological advancements. leading russian economy is that a good year says the global nuclear industry players will have to revise their safety standards and the value of japan's turmoil. we will of course here because in a major reconsideration of sci fi a nuclear career perceived in say smith brontosaurus and i think most likely but there were earlier that's our ability to find those results and i think bill be most likely course not and so i think yes there may be an impact on the market for

fuel oil and gas it is actually reasonable likelihood talking about overall cause and all nuclear generation i think it's premature simply because there was a very large earthquake which is very unlikely but have been in other periods sort of the. sinking of the markets now we start with asia and there's a massive selloff in the tokyo stock exchange on shoes day as investors were trying to guess just how bad the japan's major companies could be here's the nikkei closed down ten point five percent it's further consecutive hong kong's hang seng tracked those losses closing the session down percent. what we have seen today is just over reaction to what's going on in the market hope has already priced in there's something worse happening in the rest of the week yesterday when i thought situation could be it's important but when i came back to the office today the

situation gets worse. if those kind of vicious cycle starts but then that series of people's risk updater wanes for the more and nobody knows how far forward. right now to other markets u.s. markets also trading one and a half percent they actually opened down two percent on worries about the u. worsening situation in japan joining the global sell off general electric remains one of the main news of the second day down two point three percent together with toshiba which dropped to twelve percent in tokyo the company was one of the main contractors' for the reactors which you. here in russia both the r.t.s. and my six also joined the global selloff on tuesday after a largely ignoring the japanese crisis the previous day but if it is these last more than one of those then the new shares with losing ground on decreasing oil prices across near shedding two percent most banking shares also downs were back b.c.b.

leading the fall both of them more than two percent on them i think noisemaker is actually stronger it's up one point one percent that's the second day in a row after russian metal folding the taliban that it planned to buy shares in russia's largest nickel mining company and five the job news story has been drawn in the markets during the past couple of days and bus attributes financial turmoil we've seen in the japanese market he has to do interfere with the index strong going by a word temper sound truly heard in all major european star community service american futures and also you read some previous minus two points were sound probably one of the staff have in markets well partially have had to have in markets was russia with gastronomy rules committee called being. stronger. stocks. and we will be back in while it's tight even less than that fifteen minutes time with an update coming up next bill is here with the headlines two seconds.

to. we'll. bring you the latest in science and technology from a realm for sure. we've dumped a few jerks coverage.