margetts why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy cause report on r t. g live from the russian capital this is r t with you twenty four hours a day the crisis the focus of power plants in japan worsens as reports say a partial nuclear meltdown is under way while the country struggles to tackle the damage caused by the earthquake official death toll has risen to over four thousand as for the survivors and below zero temperatures a compounding big nightmare for overhaul a million people left displaced. as radiation levels continue to rise japanese authorities claim this no imminent threat to people's health that's a country's track record of covering up past nuclear problems makes many to be

official version of events. in libya pro-government forces. retaking more land from the rebels while the u.n. is set to discuss imposing a no fly zone and become for a measure opposed by most states. about another update for less than fifteen minutes now but meantime the situation in japan deteriorates the was left with big questions about the future of nuclear power and often spoke to nuclear physicist pattison and shared his thoughts on what we can learn from the ongoing events in japan that interview is next. today i'm talking to what patterson who is an associate fellow at saturn house and also the author of a book on the power industry called keeping the lights on and thank you very much for talking to r.t. now the situation in japan is we've seen several explosions at the christian nuclear power plant what do you think the chances are that we may see more and the

situation carrying on sure that the people working on the site hope that they've got it under control but they seem to be releasing an awful lot of hydrogen from at least three reactors and now from a fuel point as well and hydrogen is an explosive gas if it's confined a mixed with air it produces it can produce very dramatic explosions as we've seen so that's clearly a. major concern for them but i think the explosion problem is almost the least of their problems at the moment because what it has done to the reactors we don't know we don't know it hasn't apparently damaged the containment or the reactor pressure vessels themselves although i gather there may be a hole in one of the containers in that unit too but what bothers me and i haven't heard any very good confirmation about it is what it is done through the actual contact between the control room and the reactor itself whether the with the

dials engages in the control room are now actually giving reliable information about what's happening inside the reactors particularly because the sensors for temperature and pressure and water level and so on in the turbulent conditions that have been happening in those reactors must be the sensors must themselves now be potentially unreliable which means that the engineers in the control room don't actually know what's going on in the reactors and what could be going on in a throwback to the new york. the problem is that they may have water levels rising and falling they may have fuel exploding we know that they have had fuel exposed which has produced the reaction the reaction between the molten metal cladding and the water that produces the hydrogen so they have certainly had some fuel damage they may well have fuel ceramic fuel pellets that are now also circulating through

the core and that would be clogging up channels and generally generally changing that configuration the geometry in the core and unless they're reacting unless the reactor engineers know what is going on they're liable to do something wrong they're liable to do the wrong thing that's what happened at the x. of the three mile island in the united states that engine engineers who thought they were doing the right thing to protect the protect the core. open valves when they should have closed them and vice versa and wound up exposing the core and causing a major meltdown and you've mentioned that the uranium rug in reactor number two if it was in a wreck state and reload a wreck they sat me for a period of time how dangerous it backed well the rig the fuel fuel elements when they're running in the reactor with the chain reaction running the the buildup of radioactive waste in the fuel rods themselves gradually accumulates quite a sizeable infantry of very hot radioactive waste and when they talk about the

reactors all shutting down at the time of the earthquake which means that they shut down the chain reaction but you cannot shut down the radioactive waste and anything up to ten percent of the heat in the reactor core when it's when it's when it's running comes from the radioactive waste not from the chain reaction you can't shut down the heat from the waste and that he means that you have to keep taking the heat away or the temperature of the fuel rods goes up very fast and what has happened in i think all three units now is that the fuel has been at least partly exposed such that it then allows its own temperature to go up until the metal tubes melt and the metal tubes melt in the little fuel pellets water just like little sweetie's fall fall down the uranium fall falls down into into the water and of course the problem that produces is that if anough of them fall together they can

start up a chain reaction again and despite the lesson we're talking about a sort of self-perpetuating scenario the government in japan can't thank the folks who have a fine thing to be able to write about he think that's helping the whole change i'm not sure they know the whole truth that's part of the problem i mean in the circumstance it would be bad enough if it were normal times but this is after an earthquake in an enormous tsunami and the communication channels and the normal organization even of a society. as organized as japan has taken a terrible hit so the fact that they are now faced with a problem like the nuclear problem when they already have more on their hands than anybody could possibly imagine with that with the earthquake and the aftermath of the tsunami but if it's brutally brutally difficult for the for the for the government and for the people of egypt and the rest of the world we always say that palin has a reputation as one of the well face technologically advanced countries and yet they've been struggling to caribbees react without for days now what are the

factors that play that thing well i think one of the factors is that precisely the fact that the that this is a nuclear power is a very very complicated technology and its track record of actually dealing with some of the implications of the of the the inherent the inherent characteristics of this work of this type of reactor is not good i found last night an article that i wrote nearly forty years ago describing an intense controversy in the united states of both the performance precisely of the so-called emergency cooling systems on water cooled reactors and the performance was criticized by independent experts in the us but the then nuclear establishment the us atomic energy commission we have to concerns aside this was at a time when for cosima one was being built and the same the same problem is

inherent in this kind of reactor the only kind of reactor that anybody is building now anywhere in the world these reactors were originally built as power plants for submarines and obviously the overall overriding design criterion is that it has to be compact enough to fit inside the hole of a sudden marie that means that it has to produce an enormous amount of heat in a very small war you. and the only way that they can do that is with very very high pressure water which means in turn that the walls of the reactor the boiler the reactor pressure vessel have to be twenty centimeters thick and this poses all kinds of safety problems if there is any possibility of the pressure being lost or even worse if the pressure vessel itself might happen to be breached and these are the problems with these it engineers are now trying to cope with in japan some commentators on that but i think it's starting to look a lot like chinalco what do you think that. i hope that we're still going to be

a long way short of a trip of a chernobyl here particularly for one reason that even if there were a major release of radioactivity from one or more of the reactors the the event to chernobyl was accompanied by an enormous fire which produced a huge plume of hot air carrying radioactivity right up into the stratosphere and that radioactivity was then carried all over the planet by stratospheric wins i think that i can't think of a mechanism that would distribute radioactivity on that kind of scale from anything that could possibly happen at fukushima but we have heard that they have already had some fires including a fire in a fuel pond when which the cooling apparently failed and any kind of any kind of heat source like that will at least produce some kind of updraft to lift some

radioactivity of some kind into the into the upper atmosphere into the into into the wind where it can be carried some distance and of you know a lot the fact that a lie rather that the fire which direction the wind that actually but what what what are the chances that a radioactive cloud could reach russia from japan. i think very low i think very low for one thing the prevailing wind is not in that direction and for another thing as i say i can't think of a mechanism that would lift a significant amount of radioactivity high enough for it to travel that kind of distance so i don't think i don't think there's any any reason for concern. for russia or for north america for that reason japan is very stable geographically in terms of us great and yes the japanese have chosen to build a lot of nuclear power stations basic after that how supplying nuclear energy you think this will change the attitude to nuclear power in japan i'm take it is bound

to. have been of course there's been quite a substantial body of opinion in japan including among c's knowledge ists that building nuclear plants anywhere in japan is not a good idea my personal feeling is that building nuclear plants anywhere is not a good idea for basically economic reasons they're very expensive they tend to be unreliable they are a kind of electricity which is very inflexible and difficult for an electricity system to use because you can lose a thousand megawatts in two minutes and one way in another i have never been persuaded that the economic case for nuclear power is especially convincing and in recent years of course that has been the major controversy about nuclear power investment all over the world private investors do not want to spend money on nuclear plants for quite understandable reasons they don't think they could get their money back but now the safety issue has come back again and that will complicate things even further and of course we haven't had

a big nuclear accident really since general bright lights in a fix so that people have been achieving nuclear power is becoming safe and well well i think it's partly that but i think a much more important factor is that until quite recently nobody has built a new nuclear plants and not in the west there have been no. no nuclear plants ordered in the us for example since nine hundred seventy eight and since then and every plant ordered since one thousand nine hundred seventy four has been canceled up until the last couple of years when there is suddenly be done to be an great deal of u.s. government taxpayers' money on offer as subsidies for construction of new nuclear plants and even that is not persuading the companies in the u.s. to build them so be the reason that people have not been objecting to nuclear power for a past twenty years is that nobody's been building them so now you're going to get a situation which i think mit might turn into a rerun of the kind of controversies of the first generation of nuclear plants in

the late sixty's and seventy's when the public was deeply unhappy about a lot of these plans and we may well find that happens again not that thank you very much. sports is political in ways we don't often even notice especially on the level of culture where our ideas and attitudes as a society are shaped. when. instead the ties between professional football in the u.s. military have existed since the start of the n.f.l. back in one thousand money that relationship problem in place during world war two and today that bond is stronger than ever. to be uncertain or secure oldfield he'll feel a certain kind of feel when you look at recent history is taught us the sports is

never just something that we just sit back and mock and sports always had an important social function in the history of american sports is no different. from. mine in motion movies soon which bryson if you move beyond sound from phones to fruition it's so. much fun stunts on t.v. don't come. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world

has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are rooted a clue. top stories this hour on t.v. a crisis at the fukushima power plant in japan worsens as reports say a partial nuclear meltdown is under way while the country struggles to tackle the damage caused by the earthquake the official death toll has risen to over four thousand as for the survivors below zero temperatures are compounding the nightmare of a hall for a million people now displaced. as radiation levels continue to rise japanese authorities claim there's no imminent threat to people's health but the country's track record of covering up past nuclear programs makes many fishel version of events. in libya pro-government forces are taking more learned from the rebels meanwhile the u.n. is set to discuss imposing a no fly zone over the country

a measure opposed by most states. and up to date with more news from in about fifteen minutes from now but first though the sports news is next with kate. hello welcome to the sports news thank you for joining me and here are the top stories on foot in the last four letter word teeth and scan have taken to be isolated to face each other in the next one hundred playoffs calculator scores. plus how the bondage chelsea a true goals of the good against the pagan head of their champions league second leg what it's all squared and we'll. i'm staring out and we meet a russian who's taking the extreme sport of cliff diving to new heights. but first let's start with a continental hockey league playoffs where looking at even start up as just one win

away from lining up a semifinal musingly against each other both clubs are three one up in their best of seven series against the week after atlanta respectively but neither of them are doing well a trailing by four goals to three early in the final period and are locked out wrong all without lines meanwhile solid ads could have gone into the semifinals on choose their butts defending champions state to whitewash in their series eyes to a tiny phone away when four different players were on the scoresheet for the visitors in rafah. and i. still have to win all their remaining matches to reach the last fall. so confirmation of that results well i mean offset another contest having god needed a record one hundred thirty nine minutes to be a wrestler and twelve a season to all that was the longest match in catch us history size needed three overtimes so alive penalty shoot outs in the playoffs. football and chelsea have

a great chance of making friday's champions league quarter final draw as they take on copenhagen at stamford bridge later this wednesday evening with a two away goal cushion for the first leg they got out of brace in denmark has given the boost strong advantage that manager column for latinos says he won't be taking taken hagen lightly even though they've never wanted england in this tournament when i was going to be very important to move on what each quarter final of the champions league and we have to be a lot of attention. is a good game. that we're going to iowa but everything would be ok. it's. just time to prepare well the interesting four was. probably one of them they show no if we can. so people would have a visit as much of a chance in london when haye can manage a stanley sold back and says the twice off right over it could be decided by whoever scores first. it's so easy to say that it's don't do well it's

how we choose the team to score the first goal if we score the first goal will change the. psychology of the game. is obviously. if. you have been in this one situation once before learn we've been to newly announced of them so we go in for it welling up again this wednesday night rail madrid take on the all of the bad and seems to one one of the first leg and rail will be hoping for some revenge having not signed by leon at this stage last year and was being eliminated from the last sixteen for the previous six seasons the coach chose a marine who's done as a coach at home for nine years says both sides what we think the pressure. the pressure applied competition to this not all competition everybody knows that. after the match one team goes through another team goes home. everybody knows that

the next rounds one team will play another team we watch on t.v. and that's. the pressure that applies to these. two does not. know culture is the same with the ball and hold as in cement an edge by unicron away goals and munched united narrative must say to those years the quarterfinals of the champions league wind came from a goal down three two one off a half an hour west of sliding levels kind of a last gasp reich made it three two to the defending champions on the night three three and i guess it's an interesting to the last eight on the way goals and the other so i have a hand on this score in a traffic united front to want to time to last a true he's in that late on following the first leg goalless draw in france united went into the quarter finals two one overall and high praise for manager sir alex ferguson. i think graf surprised i think. growing up with. some time to just force the warning called an. innocent substitute.

in the play music a more when a few games was. it's a gesture to the physical. and is worse than the minutes here although. options maybe to the rope a league where three russian clubs discussions in each were battling to try to get into the last eight on thursday spacek have the best chance of all three after winning one of them have hijacked the first leg of the dutch powerhouse controlled most of the game but still travel to the mission at the stadium of the one way goal deficit red and white haven't won in moscow in the last three european fixtures up in the last twice and drawn once however spots are the biggest in the strong performance after their passing former devilishness most of their league opener last monday. for usually psychological it played it restored and one

is going to play against the yanks are worlds apart we're going to field a lot of players who didn't clear to stop at all so i don't think their defeat could term going to moods that's why i don't have any particular fears on the spot auction role and head of the game of. moving on says the army man suffered a dramatic defeat in their first leg as home supporter the moscow side have plenty of chances but didn't get past their rivals goalkeeper so if the portuguese pass have a one of the advantages of the second flash mob both discussed right this part they love and so you don't expect a little shy although it's a brand that is no shave it is actually to a staff meeting for school ball strikes to his name so far up if i need to see the specifics i came away from that so i guess it expends it with a disappointing three nil defeat last thursday nevertheless the defending russian champions manager china's plessy it's gone to his side will be able to overturn this deficit can strike and it's on the go cart off i was on the edge of course in

training after injury problems and send it all out to school early in the match. tennis now and maria sharapova was in blistering forty indian wells beating from a russian dinara safina in straight sets to chris. quarterfinals in the battle of the former world no one is the sixteenth feature up of the knowledge supplement six to six throughout the sixty one minutes with twenty three year old guys trying to date winners interest just fifteen unforced errors and shore up about one almost twice as many points as her rival fifty six to thirty two in the hour it was big incentive for trying to enshrine is next to her in the quarter finals. while the first of those last eight contests i'm not a fan of if you serve your face is not about ali later this wednesday evening eventually went through after a stray and us open champion kim clijsters is close to retire due to a shoulder injury. now with the clock ticking down to the london games next i want the head of russia's olympic committee says the country is targeting a top three overall performance in the u.k.

i was on the cost dressed that russia has been gaining ground in many sports recently singled out medal which discipline such as weight lifting fencing swimming and rowing russia being a traditional stronghold in boxing gymnastics and track and field events china and the usa are the usual contenders in terms of dominating the games but she was adamant russia is in the right form to hold repeating there for the good winter games in vancouver then russia and only nine a disappointing eleventh place medals table in canada last february. and we finish with arguably the most exciting extreme sport cliff diving competitively just over ten years old there's already one russian who's established his name in the sport for good but runyan reports. breasts a key this is cleat carving a really extreme where a human being and nature become one. one of the new sports in the planet

as it became competitive only in two thousand following hello and we're a tradition which is a we're two hundred years old and rochelle already has a clean driver to be proud of our own solution to the twenty six year old days of his first victory at the red bull world series and not just last year and enter this isn't as the favorite along with nine time will jam band all under due care and last season's winner their hands one of the world's most isolated and mystical places up a new we all and is choose most westerly point and the key of venue for the twenty seven world series and the reigning champ and was the first in show and impressive died which was only enough to secure a third place on the day if the next step on the platform sutra choosing was scornfully one of the most complicated. and if they did off the

russian beat and if but it wasn't enough to work on the colombian grandmaster of free diving. requirements was just flawless really happy really proud i think. it paid all the training i did in the offseason. my dives are feeling pretty comfortable. that was my plan to improve on the existing dives and maybe workers and. so far is working good help in maintaining for the rest of the season however suit claims to have what it takes to be diligent i've played second place in this competition and this is just part this is a rebel group very. long season you surprise near zero. i hope more first i'm sore so hopefully it will start from that and we close with a few more guys to keep in the memory well looking forward to you know the cleaver having them at the next stage of the world series will be held in mexico and again

for april. well known for t. . and that's all the sport is now will be back in december so i think.

culture is that so much of an oldish musician on the mark with the arab world power of people's hopes and the deadly reactions of tired of our tunisia and egypt leading the way or our libya. in motion would be so much brighter if you knew all about sound from phones to british and some. news from the stands on t.v. don't come.