there's some very strict censorship which doesn't let us understand the true picture and that's not helping. an accident in japan and assurances over radiation safety that are proving inaccurate. and disasters like this begs the question how can this be prevented we're going to take it one step further where's the heat for alternative energy plans that would prevent these issues from happening in the first. operations don't want to ever be held accountable for their actions and especially in other countries and luckily for oil giant chevron the new york giants has saved it from their nine point five billion dollar fall in the amazon or now

that is pocket change so when the corporations look out for profit who looks after the public. market as the clashes in bahrain escalate the us jump ship abandoning the naval base there put our ties between the pentagon and their oil rich allies already undermining the protests. is wednesday march sixteenth five pm in washington d.c. and christine for is out there watching our team. well we're going to start today with a worsening crisis in japan where throughout the day smoke could be seen billowing out of one of the nuclear reactors reactor number four at the fukushima nuclear power plant after a fire there are this in addition to an earlier fire and explosion and high levels of radiation seeping into the air now there is

a bubbling undercurrent of anxiety and fear from the japanese people but knowing what possibly to expect next artie's ive or bent has more. people is a kilometer long they're trying to stockpile block food is left in sendai most shelves are empty now the people here are getting ready to hide fearing an invisible killer radiation explosions at the fukushima daiichi power plant but the country on the cusp of nuclear meltdown one damaged reactors out a casing in a final two reactors have now lost cooling capability to radiation levels peaks near the plants at four hundred times the amount normally absorbed. there are fears it will spread across the country and. it's the same information and food being broadcast on every channel you have just to guess many things for them and other places you can get them in the japanese sources there's some very strict censorship which doesn't let us understand the true picture and that's not helping. while

residents prepared to go to ground for news crews a fleeing this team from new zealand is heading for the guns at airport of flights from there to sucker in tokyo are already fully booked for the next two days the exodus has begun here on the west coast. has already closed. for another eight hours already turning up and get on the next available flight out of the country such as desperation to escape. we have to wait until morning to get the next is going to harm our of what we have to wait outside but we will because we want to escape the radiation some though have no it surrounds it this was once a village those who lived here are returning to find there's simply nothing left the devastation just goes on and on. more than half a million people have been left homeless their belongings swallowed up and spat out by the tsunami relief workers are searching for survivors all along japan's ravaged

coast what's now a sea of daybreak fifteen thousand have already been rescued but over seven thousand are still missing some parts haven't even been reached yet of a chill and a half thousand relief centers are still packed and will be for several weeks it's cold and uncomfortable but this is one of the few places these people can get food and shelter huge parts of the country have been completely wiped out but the threat of nuclear meltdown means they could still be more to come out of an it r.t. they got the job back. so here we have this country this devastated country still reeling from the earthquake from the tsunami and there is so much sadness and so much confusion as the people continue to search for friends and relatives their government is telling them to say inside to shelter in place to tape up their windows did you just see what i just saw some of the pictures that have been coming from japan sure that many of these people don't have windows to tape and they

certainly don't have shelters to shelter in place there are no homes you know i think back to friday when this all happens you turn on most of the t.v. stations here in this country or in japan and you hear this word over and over containment maybe will evacuate three thousand people just to be safe yes there's a problem but it's been contained at first almost no one was saying the other c word churn noble and i can assure you i'm not a rocket scientist or a scientist of any sort but we knew on friday at least three of these reactors were under stress we knew at that one of them the radiation levels were a thousand times what they normally are and yet we heard it's not that serious i don't need to be concerned it's being contained come on people this is an area where there are one hundred million people living in an area the size of california of course there is reason to be concerned why would the owners of this power plant

or the government for that matter letting the people know it's because they weren't telling you the truth so can we ever trust corporations to look after the public interests turns out at least not in this case so now two hundred thousand people have been evacuated and the risks of health issues have not gotten better they've gotten worse and though these people do all people deserve better just saying. i want to take a look now at the issue of trust within japan and how it's affecting the people there are you correspondent in renewable lucia reports. with reactors a difficult she were nuclear power plants having gone up in smoke fears about a possible meltdown loom large japanese authorities give assurances there is no in the thread to tokyo residents but past evidence suggests they are not to be trusted completely over many years and you can destry and the regulators in japan but also in every society every country that operates nuclear power you find

consistently that there's a lack of transparency a lack of will close maybe just think i think evidently but that's too much information why should we provide the information so i think the situation in japan is absolutely critical in fact just five years ago the plant operator tokyo electric power company or tepco admitted to possible in temperature readings for cooling materials advocacy as early as n one nine hundred eighty five and with the country now facing a major disaster the government will be careful in choosing its words. i think what is going to happen in the job is government. or city or what they're trying to take care of but also the river to other countries and other nations all stopped in two thousand and two the government disclosed that at least twenty nine pieces of damage to the reactor had been swept under the carpet that incident led zep because

presidents and some senior officials to quit in scandal in two thousand and three seventeen tepco operated plants ordered to be shut down again because the operator lied about what was happening at these sites so when the japanese officials put on a somber face but give assurances everything's fine not everyone's convinced particularly when the country's already got enough other problems to deal with if you don't have the emergency resources if your employer has been destroyed and the further you go away from the reactor the more difficult the more the worse the population settlements are the more difficult it is to evacuate you don't want for pranic probably to get them to so provide weight i may be on with unli put themselves in harm's way but when thousands of lives are on the line such a policy can easily be counterproductive 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 went right into and it doesn't reduce haneke it just makes it all the more uncertain when he can't trust on any information. as it stands to parent appears to be balancing on the brink of a nuclear meltdown and though the official version of events implores everyone to stay calm history shows not all of their words could be taken at face value in tokyo it even goes r.t. . so i'm going to ask something like this happened there are a few questions but i always think to come up first how could this have been prevented and what can we do. moving forward to make sure it doesn't happen again well some of the proposed solutions are the impulsive others very specific but what has been largely missing is a better idea of forward thinking that will make it so people don't need to rely on power plants like the ones having so many issues even cali is a professor and physicist and joins us from oxford sir in the u.k.

and he does have one of these big ideas it's called fusion and stephen this is not a new idea we're talking about you know this is the gone god and that extremely high temperatures talk about why this process could potentially end the world's reliance on resources oil coal or natural gas. well if you should energy is probably the way to make energy except. it's very hard to do. it's part of it is that there's thirty million years worth of you in seawater. almost no waste products so that it's very environmentally friendly but he's in the studio too. and it has a very low accident potential. essentially has no dangerous accidents but it's very hard to do because you have to reproduce the conditions in the center

to stop. you have to be about one hundred fifty million degrees that's kind of hard to do well i mean you say this is hard to do but think about you know thirty forty years ago when the idea of going to the moon not only hard but impossible i mean these are things that the science is starting to develop i know there's a project going on right now called i thought her already international thermo new killer experimental reactor i know this is being developed by several countries in the south of france is the world's most advanced nuclear fusion reactor is this a first step that we yes yeah absolutely so in mind. the european experiment which will be superceded by. this is one of the birch tree we managed to produce sixteen megawatts of fusion power from a machine it's called jet and inside the machine the temperature in the middle was

a hundred million degrees and we hold it stable e. steady and the fusion reactions took place inside this is a remarkable achievement and ever since we did that in one nine hundred ninety seven we know that we can do fusion and so also those results in a technology so the wolves come together. to build this big machine. and i too will show us exactly what is needed to make a fusion power plant it will be a fusion plant that will produce as much energy is. i want to talk more of and just about the science and knowledge aspect of this concept you know it seems to me if you take a look back you know in the forty's and fifty's we found the best and the brightest working in the nuclear sector now many people devoting no lives that some of this seemingly you know my new concept but i actually have held technology move forward

now fast forward to sedate the best and the brightest whereas i know in this country and the united states they're either on wall street or they're developing i phones which are very lovely these i phones but they don't necessarily increase our chance of survival talk about this concept of why people are not getting more into fusion. i think it was a distinction between to be almost impossible to do maybe changing it with us but since we've been able to do it i think we're getting closer and in the last ten years since we've done it we've seen young people start to flock to the fields because they realize we're almost at some point will be kind of by fusion there's no question absolutely no question it will be powered by fusion and the question is will it be powered by fusion twenty is will two hundred years. we have to make a suit we need it now i think another question is will the larger flock start

coming to develop when a catastrophe like that happens again and again when we see what happened in japan is devastating. i think the idea of forward thinking is tough especially because a lot of times you need incentives and so now there's so little government funding into research and development of this idea. you know this provides as you said clean renewable and save energy do you think this is humanity shooting itself in the foot a little bit. well obviously i do i mean i think we should be spending a lot more money on research into energy a whole civilization based on being able to produce energy to reduce the work that humans have to do and make machines possible and in fifty years i'm not sure where our energy is going to come from and so we've got to do the work now because our grandchildren will be dependent on i think is clearly one of the ideas that have to be developed is not explicitly an option ask to be done i think that's

a good point that you make especially when you think about i mean where i sit here in washington i am just blocks away from a lot of the lobby of their job and from the most powerful lobbyist in this town in this country and in this world are the lobbyist for oil and gas companies and their entire jobs and they throw lots of money and making store oil and gas stays relevant but i know you've done a lot of writing about the fact that it will stay relevant but we just might not have that talk a little bit about the thinking that needs to change in terms of these immediate solutions versus the long term ones i think the difficulty is the the problems are going to come slowly and therefore people there's not a cliff we're going to get energy it's going to get more and more expensive and more and more of your take on salaries going to be taken on energy until eventually you know it'll be too expensive to pay for. this is how we will run out of energy

and before that happens we better have something else to put in its place it's just you know it's as i said before it's not an option we have to do it. the wall the spending about two percent of the energy market research. that's ridiculous no company would say boy so little of research it is something it won't be the watch it research really and make it secure seems to me they're going to shift in that forward thinking i hope are all that stuff you have written on the board behind you stephen maybe that's going to be a solution until it's very confusing what they do so much for talking to us even calley professor and physicist joining us from the u.k. but i want to talk now about playing by the rules the question is who has to and who doesn't have to well we have yet another example of a major corporation an oil giants in fact that has shown the world it intends to play by the rules only when it suits them shocking right well it's not just in this

country that lobbyists and i dare say even members of the judicial branch hold the power sometimes that us corporations take that power abroad are going to take a look at a major scandal that has dragged on for years and includes one of america's biggest oil giants. a u.s. oil giant and tribal communities in a small country in a legal death grip for almost two decades is considered to be one of the largest environmental disasters in the world on record the defendant chevron the accuser am a victim of pollution south american ecuador a country tinier in the u.s. state of nevada local tribes in these amazon forests are battling for compensation for damage caused by texaco a company scooped up by chevron billions of gallons of toxic waste dump on to ecuador soil and waters causing over fourteen hundred people have battled cancer

and thousands more have died of other illnesses this year and ecuadorian court ruled that chevron must pay nine and a half billion dollars in damages you know it's certainly a large amount of money you would be this is actually something that could certainly be absorbed by sharon just says b.p. is going to. get twenty billion or more costs. practically destroying the gulf of mexico but absorbing is what one new york judge chose not to do by stepping up for chevron and blocking the ecuadorian courts ruling from being enforced in the u.s. or worldwide the judge cited harm to chevron's business that's just nonsense. so why would a new york judge meddle in a legal battle chevron initially insisted take place in ecuador i say it's a u.s. company they have huge interest here they're capable of very severe pressure as well against those that wish in any way to harm their interests and of course they

have friends in a lot of high places while ecuador's tribal members certainly don't says greg pilaster investigative journalist and filmmaker greg says chevron has been calling all the shots in the case they said don't touch try the case in the united states so they sent it down to ecuador they said now we don't. like the case in ecuador because we got a bad ruling so now try in the united states now the multinational corporation is accusing ecuadorian villagers and farmers of trying to rob the company's pockets we have been seeing this fraud go on for the last twenty years we continue to uncover it we will continue to pursue several options both internationally and here in the u.s. courts but legal experts cite double standards dumping toxic waste on american soil is a crime that no company would be allowed to get away with corporations don't want to ever be held accountable for their actions and especially in other countries absolutely there is a double standard if ecuador won the case a legal precedent would be set chevrons and other oil giants biggest nightmare that

they have to pay back or they have to pay in mexico and have to pay nigerians are going to have to pay in indonesia where ever they are gone and destroyed and to spoil the environment they want to kill this right now so they were coming again anywhere in the world between the oil giants and ecuador looks to rejoin for many more years years some may not have ecuador's defense team says as many as ten thousand more people could be a cancer of the damages are not taken care of immediately was this interest in our party. well this case has been looked on by other oil companies as a victory a sign that money trumps everything but so many others around the world see this as a sick joke in which people from other countries are not only worth less than people in america are also worth less than the growing mountain of profit these companies keep making earlier i spoke with han sean is the coordinator of the clean

up ecuador campaign at amazon watch he told me what's most concerning about this case involving chevron. after nearly eighteen years of litigation a case that's been. litigated more than any case in history probably i mean we're talking hundreds and thousands of pages of documents tens of thousands of samples that have been taken at sites that were operated by texaco which is that chevron's predecessor company after all of this time and now a ruling from ecuador of course after all this time chevron is continuing just a scorched earth legal political. and p.r. offensive to evade accountability while people in ecuador continue to get sick people and i could or continue to die of oil related illness cancer children they're still don't have clean drinking water eighteen years later it's just it's a travesty and let's not forget it was chevron's that asked for this case to be

moved to ecuador perhaps they thought they could offer that in my benefit then obviously you know there has been though the ecuador and it still ruled against them and as you mentioned they're now on a p.r. blitz against what's happening there one of their main arguments that i want you to respond to is that chevron wasn't exactly responsible it was the oil company texaco which chevron later bought talked to me and whether or not you are that doesn't hold water. it's an argument that they've made in certain contexts but they haven't made in other contexts because from a legal standpoint paper they've been laughed out of court when they try to make this argument for chevron to say that they can take on all the assets that texaco represents but not take on the liabilities which they were very well aware of when they purchased them and absorb the company is just ridiculous my friend and colleague atos the soltani from amazon much was actually at the two thousand and

one chevron annual shareholder meeting to basically warn the company of the kind of liability they were about to take on by absorbing texaco they knew very well and the current c.e.o. of chevron john watson was in fact the guy who really. was that was the architect of the takeover of texaco so it's just a ludicrous argument what about this this judge in new york you know the city where you are making stepping in and making this decision how can this happen. well it is kind of mind boggling and right now i think you know the case is is on appeal in ecuador and going through the proper process the verdict it came down from ecuador ecuadorian courts is one hundred eighty eight page ruling that rely mostly on chevron's own evidence on samples taken by the company over the course of this

you know very long trial and now we've got a new york judge in the same court that chevron argued ten years ago to get out of making this ruling that the judgment cannot be enforced can't be enforced here in the u.s. he's issued a preliminary injunction against that the verdict against the force and of the verdict but it's an extraordinary overreach and i think an abuse of power by a judge basically you know the job of deciding whether or not a particular company or even a sector of the economy deserves extraordinary legal protections is a matter for congress not for the courts you know i think actually increasingly we're going to see chevron shareholders telling management that it's time for them to put this horrific controversy behind them and step up to the plate take responsibility for the devastation and outdoor and and pay up and actually provide

some relief to the communities that have suffered so much to enrich the company now is hans encored neither of cleanup ecuador campaign and much. it's been called by some the arab spring since early february we've seen popular uprisings around the world we've seen leaders unseeded we've seen chaos and violence and tragedy and in some cases victory and what we've also seen is an inconsistent tune being sung from the white house depending on the country to talk more about this i want to go to mobile alabama where hussein abreu is standing by is the director of americans for democracy and human rights in bahrain and i want to talk about hussain this relationship between the u.s. government and the governments of bahrain it seems to be a strong one the u.s. has six thousand troops in the country and i know you've argued that the u.s. can stop this what's going on there and has a responsibility to what will it mean if the u.s.

does not. basically means they're the ideal we believe in the ideal of democracy justice human rights self-determination sort of governance all the ideals that they were planning fathers fought for. i think somehow we just believe bill good for us and not good for. him and it means also that we value a tiny ruling family that is not more than. three thousand members all over. hundreds of thousands of people today under the threat of being basically attacked brutally by a foreign force by an occupying force and. came to a level where we allow occupation when we don't even call an occupation as an occupation you know your forces are in bahrain without the consent of the people of

korea it's like you me i mean it's like we are allowing. another force come into this country and then we don't call better application we call it something else so i mean who is they are you arguing that the u.s. will in fact have blood on its hands and be a partner in human rights violations if it doesn't in fact intervene. i'll call this i'll say over the best way. we know very well that that text in work and the bullets that are being used by the soviet troops and by the main troops are sold to them by us they are. sold from companies here and made here in the united states in addition to their. brain receive aids security a military aid need pay them rent for the base that we have and we norbury work that. they do their job for us they are made to our of you may know are

there very strong allies and we can control what they're doing and we have six thousand troops in the country if we don't to start this yes we are parts in this atrocity some in and out in the talk are all briefly about the reaction by the us to what's happening in bahrain and the reaction to what's happening in libya and in egypt. you know libya we condemned in the strongest when president obama him out of his way and said you must call and he said the people of libya have the right to determine who should rule them but when it comes to her somehow the people of bahrain is not mature enough for president obama and the white house where. is much more important to the white house than in the earth people of bahrain and some of ukrainian blood is worthless and the libyan blood is more important it's just a book critical stand. goes against everything we believe in in this country

i think this should start this should be change and should be done immediately before we lose more life. empty and hollow and weak statements that come in from the well that's why our. men they don't do anything they don't serve life would serve life as i want it clear order to get folks to withdraw immediately from our i was a no go i direct her of americans for democracy and human rights in bahrain and that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we cover to go to r.t. dot com slash usa or youtube dot com slash r t america and christine for sounds. like drives the world but fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions completely. made who can you trust no one. is you deal with a global mission which is where we had to stay.