can you explain your decision to order the tepco workers to remain at the plant when tepco wanted thememoved? >> the first thing which happened at 3:00 a.m. on march 15, the minister for the economy came to my office and said that the tepco headquarters had requested to him for the workers to be withdrawn from the fukushima daiichi site. considering what would happen on the site if all of the technicians were withdrawn, considering the fact there were six reactors and four spent fuel pools at the site itself, the swimming the potential of losing control completely of this whole site. even if self-defense forces were sent into the locations, they're not trained to deal with nuclear operations. with no tepco staff were technicians on-site, this would in effect mean abandoning all of the six reactors and seven pools on the daiichi site which would mean the worst-case scenario it actually become reality. so despite the huge risk that was there, i decided it was very important to keep the technicians and the tepco workers on site for as long as possible to try to deal with the situation. so

sailors and marines are suing them at -- japanese nuclear company tepco, tokyo electric power company. they accuse it of misleading the navy about the crisis at fukushima and the level of radioactive contamination at a time when the u.s. navy was providing humanitarian relief. first, new york city settles a seven-year lawsuit over discrimination hiring policies of the new york city fire apartment, the largest in the country, second largest in the world. >> there was open and blatant discrimination in the department for at least 100 years. black africans applications would be thrown in the garbage. they would do well on tests and would never be called. a black african would have committed some minor offense, literally jumping a turnstile, and would be excluded because of that. >> all that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the latest disclosures from edward snowden show the national security agency is recording every single phone call in an undisclosed foreign country. a surveillance system called "mystic" stores

and tepco workers would need to carry out the job in three reactors. for now, they know the technology they need is a long way away from being put in to practice. noriko okada, nhk world. >>> now let's get the latest business stories from ron madison. >> looks like people in japan are becoming more cautious about the nation's economy ahead of the consumption tax hike next month. the latest government survey shows that business sentiment among workers fell in february for the second straight month. researchers at the cabinet office asked more than 2,000 people nationwide how they feel about the economy compared to three months ago. results show that the february index for the current state of the economy fell 1.7 points from the previous month to 53.0. a reading of 50 does suggest that the economy is flat. now, many noted that the heavy snow caused fewer people to stay at recreational facilities and hotels. and employment numbers didn't rise as much as in previous months. concern about consumption after the tax hike caused the index for the business out

tepco is furiously trying to keep pace with the water. they finish a new quarter million gallon holding tank here about every other day. but the hastily built tanks have been leaking. prompting a switch to a welded design, buttressed by gutters, dikes, trenches and water sealants. regardless, no one disputes the plant is steadily leaking radiation-tainted water into the sea. >> when you go out to the open ocean, there is very little contamination found says superintendent ono. basically the contamination is limited to the port. at the port they are bolstering the last line of defense, this water shielding wall should be complete in september. behind it is a system that injects a chemical into the ground that turns water into a viscus gel, stemming the flow to the sea. the company is also testing an idea to bury cooling pipes near the melted reactors to freeze the ground, making impermeable ice plugs in walls that would keep the clean and contaminated water apart. but all of this is clearly not sustainable. in about three years, they will

he also said tepco should be spending more money on safety measures at the plant. nra chairman kanaka said tepco should improve working conditions to ensure the safety of the more than 4,000 workers at the plant, and to maintain their morale. after the briefing, the president of tepco told reporters he has not been trying to save money, but that he sincerely accepts the instruction. >> translator: as pointed out in the meeting there are things we should have realized earlier and acted on. as an organization, we are deeply sorry for that. >> he said that he'll work hard as the top executive to restart the malfunctioning water treatment system and reduce the amount of tainted water. >>> residents of northeastern japan are debating how best to remember the past. they have different opinions about structures that survived the earthquake and tsunami three years ago. some survivors are deciding, on their own, to safeguard what they can. nhk world has one man's story on today's edition of "the road ahead." >> reporter: he has lived his entire life here. it was a community

there has been a public outcry over the way tepco is handling the cleanup operations of protests taking place ahead of the third anniversary it's believed will take decades to decommission the facility a lot of work has a living because of tough ticket suppose many of the new ones a lack the proper skills and experience are of a jacobs also saying the country's nuclear industry just isn't ready to deal with incidents like this. there's been a call for international participation from those outside of the japanese nuclear industry that had been conducting you know fairly lax standards in operating these plants before the disaster but because of the lax regulation here in japan there was no vigorous regulatory agency that understood the operations of these plants that could step in and supervise so as a result we're left in the position where the people who created this mess are the people who clean it up and this is typical of the nuclear industry worldwide is that a lot of nuclear companies make more money decommissioning the masses of their own plants than they made in operating them f

released twice as much as previously thought then in october two thousand and twelve the operator tepcofinally admitted it failed to implement safety improvements that led to the meltdown march last year record radiation levels found in local fish and then in june twenty third t. and it was revealed the cause of radioactive water leaking from a storage tank and then finally an organist last year tepco confessed that around three hundred tons of highly radioactive water had indeed leaked from fukushima since twenty eleven well of course r.t. has been following the incident throughout we sent many of our reporters to that region to gather their stories they're all available on our website any time you like for now though a quick preview of what's waiting for you at r.t. dot com. that anywhere now well within the fukushima no go zone we're just ten kilometers from the nuclear power station these houses ravaged by the tsunami twenty eleven still standing here and nowhere near to being restored. one of the frightening things about this entire incident is that there are no concrete boundaries

tepco is seeking permission to restart two reactors here in july. if that happens, it will make it easier for other nuclear power plants to come back online. but the governor of the prefecture that is home to kashiwazaki-kariwa is fighting tepco's proposed plan. despite a series of investigations and reports on fukushima over the past three years, hirohiko izumida is insisting there are still unanswered questions. >> ( translated ): the cause of the accident at fukushima is yet to be identified, yet they are declaring that the kashiwazaki- kariwa plant is safe. i find this exceedingly arrogant, he said. >> reporter: and while many of his constituents depend on the tepco plant for their livelihood, they too are wary of nuclear power. >> ( translated ): if these alternatives are improved enough through some sort of scientific advances, that would be best, says yoshinori takahashi, a bus driver at the plant then the use of nuclear power will naturally taper off, i wish for it to be eliminated that way. >> reporter: that is the goal at here on the pacif

tepco and government officials want to start removing melted fuel from the damaged reactors in aboutix years. the new body is under strong public pressure to ensure the decommissioning work proceeds smoothly. >>> business managers around the world are digging in to smartphone data and online information to try to learn a bit more about their customers. and japanese entrepreneurs are helping them to make sense of it all. they're turning big data into pretty big business. >> reporter: smartphone applications are making it easier and easier for people to find their way around towns and cities. the first step is for users to give the app permission to access their location information. this tokyo-based firm developed one such app. >> translator: it finds me using my phone's gps data. >> reporter: the app collects about 300 million pieces of user location data each month. in november, the firm began selling the information to other businesses. monthly subscriptions start at about $7,800. companies can use the data to improve their marketing strategy. >> translator: data is a resource. wha

twice as many toxins than previously thought october twenty fifth twenty twelve fukushima operator tepco finally admitted it failed to implement safety improvements. in march twenty twelve or so ten or twenty twelve as well back to march we go record radiation levels were found in local fish caught near fukushima in june two thousand and thirteen revealed the cause of the radioactive water leaking from a storage tank and in august last year tepco confessed that around three hundred tons of highly radioactive water had leaked from fukushima now r.t. has followed the incident throughout and even sent its reporters to the site to gather stories all available on our website r.t. dot com for now is a quick look for ya. technically we're now well within the no go zone we're just ten kilometers from the nuclear power station these houses ravaged by the tsunami still standing here and no way to being restored. one of the frightening things about this entire incident is that there are no concrete boundaries that can clearly guarantee your safety. it's hard to say what gives you a creepier feeling

to add to what they can from a story tongue lost or with tepco confess that around three hundred tons of highly rated. had leaked from fukushima since twenty eleven let them talk to christina console a recession in the. incident christina consolo welcome to aussie so what's currently being done at the poly plant to clean up the contamination how efficient is they clean up process right now well i think many of the things that they're doing at the fukushima site are purely cosmetic to. to have the appearance that there is some kind of decommissioning going on but the truth of the matter is you know we have three melted cores there are underneath the plant we don't know where because we've never seen any kind of ground penetrating radar or other indications of where those fuel course may be. we have one thousand to four thousand tons of water that moves through the site daily because of the underground river that used to be on the site and then we have a massive amount of water that's being poured and collected in tanks in those tanks are failing and so it's some point a decision is goi

of contaminated water into the pacific ocean it's been three years since the nuclear disaster but tepco is still struggling to clear up with occasional radioactive leaks still happening he has been following the disaster senate began. technically we're now well within the no go zone we're just ten kilometers from the nuclear power station these houses ravaged by the tsunami twenty eleven still standing here and nowhere near to being restored. one of the frightening things about this entire incident is that there are no concrete boundaries that can clearly guarantee your safety. it's hard to say what gives you a creepier feeling the trail of destruction left by the twenty levenson all the houses untouched by natural disaster but the band after the nuclear accident. just to give you an idea of the consistency right now the diagram is really frequent tonight of micro records which is about thirty times what is more than the accepted level but if you come down here to where i just saw it all and a lot of it's collective the radiation quickly jumps up but it's still climbing earlier we've go

many around japan including workers at tepco holding a moment of silence, employees along with othersowing their hezbollah to remember those who were lost. and the radiation continues to leak from fukushima, but we know that thanks to the efforts of a small group of scientists. jake ward is live in california one thousand feet of offshore ia boat off the pacific ocean. how do we know that amount of radiation coming off the shores of fukushima, and how do we know that it's small enough that we don't need to worry about did. >> reporter: it's due to scientist who is have been trying to basically take a look at both the seafood that moves back and forth between the japanese coast and the california coast, which includes pacific blue fin tuna, and trying to sample the water itself. the trouble is they're not able to get federal funds to do this. instead, they're soliciting crowd funding just to be able to dip buckets in 14 different sites to sample this amount of seawater they can't get federal funding to do it. that said with the small amount of readings they have been able to take, they

time well last august tepco confessed that around three hundred tons of highly radioactive water had leaked from fukushima since two thousand and eleven christina consoler researches the effects of nuclear incidents and she says the fukushima cleanup efforts a poorly managed. many of the things that they're doing at the fukushima site are purely cosmetic too. to have the appearance that there is some kind of decommissioning going on you have a massive amount of water that's being poured and collected in tanks in those tanks are failing and so at some point a decision is going to need to be made about what they're going to do with the water in those tanks because the goal is to keep the workers on the site long as possible so that they can try to mitigate any problems that occur from failures in all of their systems. thousands have been running in tokyo protesting against the nuclear industry for she would disaster created up to three hundred thousand refugees it's taken sort of says that these people might never return. according to the japanese government they're trying to move peop

what is important is that tepco knows how to address them, communicate with the public, and make suret is safe. >> reporter: this man helped me with my mask, and last year worked on water decontamination. >> translator: i hear the system is having problems again. when i worked on it , i was mentally fatigued. it is beyond our imagination. that's why all of the operators had such a hard time. >> reporter: we followed he and his wife and they checked on their home inside the exclusion sewn. he admits to being exhausted. >> translator: i think he feels responsibility more strongly than others. he can't just take it easy. i wanted him to quit. but each time he found a reason not to. >> reporter: three years on the disaster is still exacting a heavy cost on a national level and on a personal one. >>> meanwhile health officials are now predicting that that radioactive water from fukushima will hit the west coast sometime in 2014. jake ward is in california 1,000 feet offshore in a boat. and though internet now abuzz with videos showing already a possible spike in radiation in san francisco,

three years tepco was still facing a major challenge to contain a radioactive water at the site amid harsh criticism and calls to put fukushima related work under government control earlier this year a former employee in the facility said that one of the reasons for so many leaks could be of a cost cutting measures tepco has applied so just using it he said tape on key equipment in washington d.c. it perry and boring r.t. . all right well prosecutors are now saying that washington d.c. mayor vincent gray had detailed knowledge about an illegal fund raising operation that helped him capture the two thousand and ten election at a court hearing monday prosecutors allege that ray knew about a conspiracy to pump more than six hundred sixty thousand dollars of illegal donations into his campaign however campaign election laws forbid contributions of more than twenty five thousand by one person this is all coming to light after a leading d.c. businessman jeffrey thompson pleaded guilty yesterday to supporting a shadow campaign when great was a candidate so what does this all mean for the ma

the nineteen foot protective seawall surrounding the fukushima nuclear power plant owned by tepco then stand a chance against the forty five foot wave that hit the plant three years ago today on march eleventh two thousand and eleven a magnitude nine point zero earthquake shook the coast of japan triggering a tsunami that created the most disastrous nuclear spill censure noble the catastrophe caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the facility radioactive material was leaked into the air soil and sea and three years later it's still leaking. radioactive leaks continue to plague the fukushima new unit three problems just two months ago in january of this year. the company said the reactor has been steadily cooled but this isn't an isolated event and august twenty eighth thirteen there was a three hundred ton leak of highly contaminated water this spillage was the most severe since march two thousand and eleven and tepco says it doesn't know how the water wheat or where it has leaked to. then just two months later on october twenty third team another four hundred thirty leaders

through independent monitoring and i think that's really where we have to rely on because as we know tepco has been grossly incompetent criminally negligent and to a certain point it's shocking mice chewing through the wire i mean. it's absurd kevin the you wes has one hundred four nuclear reactors at least twenty two of which are near identical designs that the g.e. reactors and this coupled with the near impossible task of actually removing the workings storing it safely why is scaling back nuclear energy not a more pressing concern in this country well i think there's some good news a record breaking year in terms of reactor shutdowns five reactor shutdowns in the u.s. including vermont yankee which is the fukushima daiichi twin will be shut down by the end of this year as prime minister said in japan though it's a huge fight in japan and it's the most powerful political and economic lobby the nuclear industry in the united states it's one of the most powerful so that's what the grassroots movement is up against are these billion dollar corporations that own capitol hill own the white h

. >> they will have additional problems and what is important is that tepco can address and deal withd communicate with the public and make sure it's safe. >> reporter: huge stresses on the men and women who work here and today helping me with my mask, last year working only water decon -- de-contamination. >> translator: when i worked on it i was mentally fatigued and didn't know what would go wrong with parts i didn't know about and why operators had such a hard time. >> reporter: we followed he and his wife as they checked only their abandoned home in the exclusion join and allowing the maximum exposure for workers and admits to being exhausted. >> translator: i think he feels responsibility more strongly than others. he can't just take it easy. i wanted him to quit but each time he found a reason not to. >> reporter: three years on this disaster is still at a heavy cost on a national level and on a personal one. harry faucet, al jazeera, fukushima, japan. >> reporter: the government has ear marked $250 billion towards rebuilding the disabled fukushima nuclear plant. the growing vi