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 levels since 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 there are just reduced panic it just makes it all the more uncertain and the believe we can't trust for maybe information are being given. also this hour the death toll from friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami climbs to over three thousand there's a seventy thousand considered still missing. and the nuclear drama unfolding in

japan prompts experts worldwide to question the overreliance on technology that often proves one thing interests them helpful. live from a studio here in central moscow this is r t with you 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 the fire is said to have damage an area used to store spent nuclear fuel with reports that staff is struggling to cool it down the situation at all six reactors are said to be critical after the only two remaining cooling systems failed following the devastating quake and tsunami that blasted facility number two which occurred this morning that reportedly damaged the vessel of the reactor

engineers have been using seawater to cool the reactors in an attempt to avert a nuclear disaster but these are the planet reports now from outside the danger zone and shipped by the consumer the whole. nation is gripped by the situation it was very nervous and it could. we know we're on the cusp of a nuclear catastrophe could kick in. and an absolute disaster in no one really knows which way to turn because following before the explosion it's a day over over all the same explosion of the day for the explosion at the nuclear power plant they stopped four hundred times that those since one would expect to see in a year which is very critical and harmful level indeed so the situation is very tense it and all this follows the events of today which seem to have just gone from bad to worse two explosions this morning with two previously intact reactors and then two more the final two reactors of the six out of the question we're hearing

this evening now current so critical condition they have that have been explosions there they have also had their cooling mechanisms knocked out so they can't cool down the reactors and that's what led to the first two explosions first on saturday no one yesterday and the situation suddenly got a whole lot more critical when up a couple notches with a second explosion today because of that thought reactor actually ours is a seven hundred eighty spent fuel rods all of which containing the radioactive material normally of a nuclear reactor actually contains around sick if you're also there was a lot more potential lot greater potential for a much larger share of radiation leak in this granted fears of a major new clicked asprey and tension you can melt down also fuelled by. the prime minister's address to the nation telling people to stay indoors even as advice comments on the government house even when your laundry indoors because they don't want anyone going outside at all and it's prompted for

a new screws all the ones i've seen today head for the exits i'm 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 been a lot of distrust about the information to. coming outfront electric power company owned power and also the government that's not only a month or a nuisance but also months present here for the residents i've spoken to be there also trying to get to the airport secure 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. this situation is very bad and they think that the prime minister actually doesn't want to fuel panic but on the streets and there is panic in these parties other bennett reporting there were 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 you have every day we see the situation getting further and further out of control each day we wait here in japan to a much more grim situation then the day before and it's it's hard to imagine i think 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 when it doesn't reduce panic it just makes people all the more uncertain when they believe they can't trust fully the information they're being given this situation is very much difficult to control there's no doubt about it you know 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 if you had three aftershocks over seven going to go on the richter scale and you get a call or 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. this is costing around the world and if you're in the affected areas you can always share your experiences but logging on to our facebook account if there's us and to use as one word if only our page also has the latest videos and then this is news on the situation there as well as other top stories and so if you do know something that you think the rest of the world should know about then please do go on to altie news on facebook. how to normal levels of radiation to be

detected in the japanese capital raising fears among the local population and i correspondent at the nicholas is in tokyo. it would have been raised not significantly and are not presenting any need to danger to residents of the japanese captain so of course at the same time you have to remember that the levels of radiation in the air around the ponds are such that thousands of people have for brady who have actually ended and tens of thousands have been told to keep their doors and windows shut and not wi their homes so at some point they were starts radioactivity levels just north of tokyo and have about thirty three times the norm so that is the situation that we're looking at right now and of course the i.a.e.a.'s also saying that radiation levels are going to are going to.

rise in the near future as the radiation reaches chios so we're keeping a close watch on whether or not we're going to have any further reaction from the japanese authorities. and me very nice intervals in the japanese capital of me actually rise as well we also know that. more than one hundred thousand. have been released. and sent off to the areas affected the most 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 very active nuclear meltdown and that is what everybody is keeping a close eye on but of course the the rescue efforts are still continuing there of course countries 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 moral speeling you would imagine to be a city bursting with lights and activity there is hardly anybody out on the streets right now people that are out there all wearing face masks. well so there have been reports of shortages of. buying such things as and based products and some other things happen securing off the cells but again they're very orderly. in the air so to speak and it's. probably here and people are still waiting for what's going to happen next. well nuclear power experts at greenpeace have told me and i think the conditions at the fukushima power plant are extremely difficult for the moment which makes it hard to predict an outcome situation at this moment remains critical it will remain critical several days there's only fifty people allowed in the plans

of their work in fifteen minutes shifts which is which is very little and they have to work very many things by hand because remote control installations of. the main operating room. because of the radiation levels they're working under extremely difficult circumstances to try to prevent the worst from the worst which would indeed be a core that is completely drawing and that would be. it is very early to predict what will happen because we depend on how much of the material would get out it would depend on what the sea streams would be what the wind means what is certain is that the spread of this material in the air would not go as far as that we've seen. the reason for that is that. the air because there is no graphite in it like like any any chernobyl reactor that means that most of the. nearer to the nuclear power station and there it would create larger havoc than we've seen in the case of chernobyl. in russian regions close to japan residents and emergency services are

on high alert this despite saying the radiation levels are normal and the danger of a possible radioactive cloud reaching the russian coast is minimal over some tourists and foreign workers are leaving the area our correspondent catherine which over is in the second region which is some one hundred kilometers north of japan. emergences officials for this region have in turn supplied checks for radiation levels here in the civilian region we talk to representatives of the ministry they showed us a car which they equipped with professional guide her meters which would measure radiation levels at different places around the city so the mudgal says ministry here assures 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. there's no threats to the health of the sakhalin people radiation reading certain

normal levels. meanwhile russia's defense ministry that it is ready to send out its personnel from the coral islands any time soon this is the closest part of this region to north japan and also sales of io jeans have rocketed in for mrs across the city obviously people want to make sure that they are well propounded in case that there is a radioactive emissions threat from what we know from people we've spoken to is that they are not quite sure whether the japanese are playing down the threw out of a nuclear catastrophe or not planes leave the international airport of usual according to the shuttle for what we know there are no edition no flights 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 unknown and a lot depends on the wind it is very crucial so what people should be closely monitoring now is weather forecasts it will take

a radioactive cloud if there is an explosion inside a core of a nuclear reactor less than a day to reach a peace part of russia. by the way you can follow r.t. on twitter to find out what you can do to help the japanese families overcome the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami russian families living in safe proximity japan have already offered to accommodate japanese children called harper creek disaster all these developments and many more that ati's twitter helped. was because expanding its aid to japan but the number of russian emergency workers involved in rescue operations expected to grow over the next few days countries also boosting its humanitarian aid and energy supplies what is paid all of it has more now from the russian capital. there's already a russian rescue his an aid workers on the ground in japan and the numbers are expected to increase over the next couple of days to around one hundred eighty now these rescue workers in eight ball what's ten day old thomas rest easy by the

emergency ministry here in russia all that means is a rapid response team that they're ready to go and see to stay hit the ground and they don't require any additional help from the japanese authorities so they can they will be taking any people away from japan's already overstretched rescue teams that are working right there now it's not just rescues that if you heading out there have already on the ground in japan it's also humanitarian aid through looking at tents and shelters for those who have lost their homes also things like food water and medicine now we hear that russia has also said that they will provide any help to japan that they can request it was also a team of nuclear physicists in russia's far east that are ready to go to fukushima should they be requested for any how they could get there and it's not just this humanitarian aid we're also seeing any g eight be sent from russia teacher pandey increasing the supplies of coal between the two countries is also one hundred fifty

thousand tons of liquid gas will be said from russia to japan and they like electricity can be provided directly to japan through an underwater cable but it's also it's do you see them us if outpouring of support in russia for the japanese people over the weekend there were flowers being laid outside of the japanese embassy and enough to solidarity between the two nations prime minister vladimir putin has invited the russian the japanese judo team to come over here to russia to train. well the situation in fukushima has caused many countries around the world to review their own nuclear programs now russia has said that then u.k. programme will continue armed is safe. i would like to emphasize that at this time we possess an entire arsenal of advanced technological measures to ensure the crisis free and stable operation of nuclear power plants and these measures should and will be utilized to the maximum well as the situation continues to worsen by

the day we see that it really brings into the foreground the the realisation that mankind which is monthly in control when it comes to technology and that technology being impacted upon by the forces of nature that we can now hear reports from my colleague alexey out of sheer speed is in ukraine. 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 and the. they had very poor knowledge of the physics of the reactor they knew the manual and wants to push the that's it for the nothing of the reactor physics personal draw the reactor into a city that was out of control while the authorities clearly knew who to blame for the fallout of even the soviet union stop scientists were at a loss as to what to do in the days the catastrophe unfolded. satiation

as a remission free for sailing this was something unseemly for a nuclear power station with flames and smoke over it was a quarter of a century on history seems to be repeating in japan despite the or thora these claims there are of having the situation under control the fukushima nuclear power plant has already seen explosions and that's despite advanced safety systems which the chernobyl reactor now i have been. to earth quick reaction was completely full see we should. be happy. is very exceptional. when we. see the decent jury that such a situation is unfolding in one of the world's most technologically advanced

countries has heightened the sense of alarm internationally but 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 decades old. the society that government regulators believe that technology can be operated safely but there's a built in psychological complacency that if you're operating something that saw an arab league dangerous 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 to convince themselves that 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 man over reliance. on your dangerous friend and one mishandled in striking disastrous fashion we have

always seen this with these they call techno genic disasters you remember last year there was a massive oil spill in the gulf of mexico again you had a very competent famous company that seem to know what it was doing but they simply hadn't planned for a juncture of conditions that would create a disaster so this is the human condition we simply are unable it seems to handle these technologies were probably not ready for them the nightmare that the chernobyl reactor became was eventually sealed off within the massive concrete sume called the circle forgets 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 there will have for nuclear technology the world nervously waits to see less erosion of skin r.t. . when you go 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 of fighting the. disaster in chernobyl and they're fighting the consequences first of all the fallout that happened across russia regions and russia can offer a lot of expertise in fighting those consequences and also you know russians understand very well the magic of the disaster that you know of as the situation for all the trash in prime minister vladimir putin immediately offered all or available the system stewardship and colleagues and even the shipment of gets the amount of radiation being released now and the amount of radiation that will be released in the coming few she is so great that actually the whole global the fact that you know the disaster chernobyl were only one poll unit was affected you know this really should call the whole globe so the magnitude of the looming disaster

that cannot be predicted now but definitely it's going to be one of the worst disasters in the world history but even with an update on the latest news concerning japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami on the twitter page currently the number of those confirmed dead stands at over three thousand but there have been some positive stories to emerge learning that's an elderly man and woman were rescued ninety six hours after the earthquake struck we can learn all about that on twitter but with the latest developments on our account just not on our team underscore the point. crisis in japan is part fears in europe and similar incidents taking place there they use over one hundred nuclear power plants we're going to be ministers having already health crisis talks in brussels what is daniel bushell is there for us. the emergency response meeting here in brussels has been raised from

expert to ministerial level that means all twenty seven e.u. energy ministers have been called to brussels to really called an emergency response team to the e.u. energy commissioner says we need to see if we can provide an energy policy for the e.u. that's a voice nuclear energy of course it's a fluke it's really a change from the traditional energy policy of many countries in the european union which was to increase its nuclear capacity because italy for example is a big e.u. country which is starting from scratch a big nuclear program france belgium here also have 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 to give you a flavor of the sentiment here in brussels let me just quote from the portuguese state secretary for the environment he said in the light of the nuclear meltdown in

japan member states need to reconsider their energy policy and related security measures 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. down which will there in brussels one of the situation in japan involves the world's nuclear powers have to rethink their policies to prevent similar catastrophes in the future that's a painting of richard thornburgh he's the former governor of pennsylvania during the infamous three mile island accident back in one nine hundred seventy nine and his interviews coming up in about ten minutes from now here's a brief preview for. certainly in the united states i know and i suspect in other areas where plants have been built anywhere near a fault line that they're rethinking their process they don't want to become another japan and that since 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. and i'll be back with headlines in just over five minutes from now in the meantime dimitris next with the latest on the economic effects of the japanese disaster stay with us. welcome to business concerns about the state of japan's economy has been rising as the extent of the devastation becomes clear although the quakes bypassed japan's industrial heartland the shock waves have been felt throughout the business sector power supply is critical in the country firms like toshiba. and nissan have had to stop production because with eleven of japan's fifty four power stations out of

action they're running out of energy shipbuilders technology companies worldwide are short of supplies after the disaster damaged one of primaries is having a knock on effect with hughes forming it natural. but 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 percent things whereas other e.u. countries are looking at alternative energy sources russia has stepped up its commitment to a joint u. develop a new nuclear power plant to get out of the race. it was look. we are facing a crisis related to what is happening in japan which will certainly influence the global economy we intend to go ahead with our clients to build a nuclear power plant and eleanor's the project we are going to develop will encompass a leader safety and second a logical advancements. leading russian economy still gave says a global nuclear industry players will have to revise their safety standards in the

wake of japan's turmoil. we will of course see because major reconsideration of the nuclear reactor safety being safe with promise zones and i think most likely but there were are located in those zones and i think they'll be most likely closed down and i think yes that may be an impact on the market for fuel oil and gas it is actually reasonable like he was talking about overall closing down all nuclear generation i think it's premature simply because there was a very large church which is very unlikely to happen in other areas of the world. now move to the stock markets and we start years again with asia the massive selloff in the tokyo stock exchange continued on changed as investors were trying to guess just how badly japan's major companies could be here the nikkei closed down ten and

a half percent its worth consecutive slump hong kong's hang seng track those losses close in the session down three percent u.s. markets have managed to recover some of the loss and as the fed delivers after the comments on the u.s. economy flights in the seas remain in the red with japanese woes general electric remains the main loser the second day one of the main losers is down one point three percent the south together with toshiba sixteen percent and the company was one of the main contractors for the reactors. here in russia both the r.t.s. and the my six did join the global selloff on tuesday after the largely ignoring the japanese crisis the previous day overseas lost more than one and all of them were losing ground on the creasing world prices draws near shedding two percent most banking shares were also down. be more than two percent in the red noisemaker was actually stronger one point one percent that's up to russian metal holding the thousand best plans to buy shares in russia's largest nickel mining company. the

jump a news story has been drumming good markers during. past couple of days of bus approve the financial turmoil we're seeing in the japanese market yesterday and today with the index tumbling by a word temporist sound truly heard all major european stock indices marking futures and also a rather. modest of both were sound i'm probably one of the having markets well partially have been markets was russia with gastro called being. stronger. talks japanese electronic companies which close factories have destructors connection connected production chains of high tech products well i have. some time. prices but such currents will not rise significantly you're going to be no it's not new but it's japan is the main producer of dynamic and flash memory chips which are commonly used in

mobile phones computers and laptops so a drop in production of these chips may lead to a deficit of certain high tech goods and price growth even in the worst scenario at retail price growth of ten to fifteen percent. so for now the headlines are next with bill just off the short break stay with us.