on fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant on reactor three. they are planning to start a spraying operation use a truck. we are waiting for defense minister to hold a news conference to explain the helicopter operation. . due to radiation levels the operation should be conducted for a minimum altitude and limited to 40 minutes per helicopter day. you are looking at the operation footage taken one hour and a half ago at around 9:48 a.m. japan time where 7.5 tons of sea water was dumped four times on number three reactor building at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. there is an urgent need for cooling those reactors to stop the fuel from emitting hydrogen for possible explosion or melt down. as soon as we have defense minister toshimi kitazawa for a news conference, we will get his explanation about the operation which took place about 90 minutes ago in fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. you are now looking at the footage taken at that time where 7.5 tons of sea water were dumped on number three reactor building at the fukushima dai

from the fukushima daiichi power plant. what has been happening since then is the plant reported another fire and flames were seen coming from some of the reactors then and now from 10:00 a.m. an nhk helicopter is flying 30 kilometer away from the plant had been taken footages of this nhk fukushima daiichi i plant where you see white smoke billowing from there. we do not know if it is caused by the flame, or if it is hydrogen explosion. we will be updating with you as we have more details on that. you are now looking at footage taken about 20 minutes ago at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant where smoke is billowing from there. about 10:00 a.m. japan time,ening a nhk helicopter filmed smoke coming from the fukushima daiichi power plant. helicopter is flying 30 kilometers away from the plant. we don't know the details of which reactor it is coming from, or whether it is caused by flame or a hydrogen explosion, as we have seen in some of the reactors yesterday and the day before. earlier wednesday the plant operator re

the power is now coming near the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. we need to assist with how much work we can continue in order to supply nuclear power in to the nuclear power plant from outside. and water spraying on number 3 reactor, this should also continue constantly. >>> translator: according to the report today, the u.s. government offers technical assistance, but the japanese declined that offer. this is an important point, so i'd like clarify what happened. on the part of the government, and cabinet, we don't recognize that such a fact has happened. as for the offer from the u.s. government, we'd like to receive more support from the u.s. government on what can be provided from the u.s. government and what is needed in the disaster areas being coordinated and discussed. and at least, on our part, from the cabinet, we have never said that we don't need such support. we are requesting for specific support to the u.s. government, and they are responding, as well. >>> translator: this is a followup question. secretary of state hillary clinton s

course the difficulty again is the difference between the type of material being vented here and at daiichi a meeting the likelihood is it is mostly steam. in charitable. vaporised . big prize graphite would have materialized as as dust or affected people as dust so staying inside would have been the best option is seen applies to daiichi but of course if the water condenses and enters the water supply. may get undrinkable so people wearing masks keeping their doors and windows shut and keeping their air circulation systems such as heating and air conditioner switched off is about all you can do i mean. the government has given excellent advice and in that situation there really isn't anything else you can do if radiation levels are high the government as you mentioned will administer anti-radiation medications such as such as i heating pad and let's talk about what the government is a doing earlier you mentioned that there is still a chance to contain savage that shame up power plants but looking at pictures you see an explosion it seems massive let's put it into perspective what else can

he'll be giving ugs the latest developments at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. >> translator: reportedly iaea suggested the japanese government issue an evacuation order. what do you say? >> translator: yes, the iaea has been conducting a soil survey, and one of the sample readings have exceeded iaea recommended leve levels, and it's been advised to the japanese government that we should take careful decisions based on these sampling results, and they will -- we have been continuing the atmospheric radiation surveys near the site and the iaea sampling results will also be taken into consideration for further detailed monitoring on the part of the japanese government. and as to the radiation levels in soil, this has exceeded the recommended limits. if the health hazard can develop to humans who stay near the site for prolonged periods of time, but there is no immediate health hazards if the exposure will continue for a prolonged period of time, the impact can occur. we will continue the ongoing survey, so there is no plan at the moment to expand the evacuation area. we do reco

the good news is that that in the daiichi reactor is sort of the daiichi reactor the one that is just exploded. there is entirely water so that material venting into the atmosphere will likely just steam a radioactive steam in the case and sharon know that. the reactor was moderated by graphite and graphite holds the radiation and spirits much for that are as dust and gas so. about was the significant problem was shown over the the neutron moderator and near you now react it was different and the radiation could spread much further you have to remember that at the daiichi site there are i believe six active reactors all of which have shut down and again i don't have all the information but at the moment it appears as though reactor building number one is the site of the explosion now this is the oldest of the six reactors at daiichi it was built in one thousand seven hundred so it suggests that the oldest structure on the site was also the weakest and that this explosion has possibly exposed the uranium in the reactor to the air. and he doesn't mean that the situation is necessarily o

as japan struggles to deal with an emergency, fears are growing about the safety of the fukushima daiichi power plant. we have this from the edge of the nuclear exclusion zone. >> inside the plant, workers are trying to avert a nuclear catastrophe. but today, a second explosion. this time at reactor no. 3. the blast was huge. there was believed to be a buildup of hydrogen. just hours before, people living nearby were trying to leave by any means possible. this was just 3 miles from the site. those who ignored earlier warnings were desperate to get out. in towns for the runway, fears of further contamination. japan relies on nuclear for nearly one-third of its electricity. the trust and in the technology and power company faith has been shaken. >> i am very scared. if i got out affected by radiation would be a big risk of getting cancer. >> after being checked, people are being offered places in evacuation centers around the city. this place is about 40 miles from the nuclear power station. for some, that is not far enough. they are leaving the beach and all together, going to other parts

. >>> traces of plutonium have been detected in soil samples from the compounds of the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. the operator of the plant, tokyo electric power company, says the level detected is very low and does not pose a threat to human health. the government said it will conduct further monitoring to see its possible effects. >> translator: concentration of the detected plutonium is comparable to the environmental fallo fallout, it is comparable to the level that will be found in our environment. however, if you look at the types of plutonium, the composition is different from the general fallout. because of this we believe this plutonium is likely to come from the reactor. higher level of plutonium, we need to take additional measures, so our intention for now is to continue on with the monitoring on the site. >>> chief cabinet secretary edano also said the fact that plutonium was detected proves that fuel rods had temporarily melted down in the reactor and that this is a grave situation. he said the government is making all-out efforts to prevent further possible eff

breaking news this hour at least a full people have been injured following an explosion at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant in japan the roof of the reactor housing collapse will be extensive the damage is all known but there are fears of a possible meltdown it follows friday's record eight point nine magnitude quake and resulting tsunami here fishel a number of deaths in japan stands at more than seven hundred with reports claiming thousands on they're saying. this is good to have you with us well first it was one of the world's strongest earthquakes then i devastating tsunami and now japan faces a nuclear catastrophe an explosion of a focus shima power plant means it's now facing a complete meltdown on the benet hunt the latest from turkey. fear here now is the spread of radiation in the atmosphere and. these concerns and he is not one nuclear reactor but to now the evacuation or area around a second nuclear reactor of the shimon number two has been extended to ten kilometers that reactor has been under a state of emergency for the last few hours because since the cooling system was k

the good news is that that in the daiichi reactor there. is entirely water so the material venting into the atmosphere will likely just steam radioactive steam in the case of sharon noble the reactor was moderated by graphite and. holds the radiation and spirits much further as dust and gas so. that was the significant problem with sharon over the the neutron moderator in the airplane that react it was different and the radiation could spread much further just to give us an idea for those of us have never seen a reactor when the roof of a reactor collapses what exactly does that mean does it mean that the whole facility is breach at the core of the reactor there has has been breaches in danger . and not not necessarily now you have to remember that at the daiichi site there are i believe six active reactors all of which have shut down to piers is that no reactor building number one is the site of the explosion now we see is the oldest of the six reactors and daiichi was built in one nine hundred seventy nine so it suggests that the oldest s

sendai one of the worst affected by the huge wave now i've heard you're not far from be a fukushima daiichi nuclear plants will be very late as we're hearing is that a third of reactor is in danger of overheating there's been a second explosion what's happening there right now just tell us. well the latest is just another reacts and before she might pluck up on number one reactor is now in danger of overheating it's lost its cooling mechanism which is crucial to stopping nuclear meltdown and what this means it could lead to overheating and another explosion similar to the two of the past we've already seen that one could happen now what they're doing to try and prevent that by pouring on sea water into the reactors trying to pull it down and that's what they did for the other two plants unfortunately that didn't prevent any explosion when the explosion a did happen earlier today at that second reactor the fear was the actual vessel the nuclear reactor itself that exploded thankfully not so a sigh of relief here because if that had been the case and radiation would have been pouring out it w

sea water analysis, iodine levels at the facility of the south discharge outlet of the fukushima daiichi power plant which was 126 times the controlled limit yesterday, later rose to 140 times, and today was at 1,250.8 times the control limit. this figure means that if you drink 500 milliliters of such water, you would get a dose of one millisievert which is an average dose limit for adults. >> the situation at the fukushima daiichi plant remains serious. tokyo electric power company has had to change its strategy to restore cooling systems at the plant due to high radiation levels at the site. reactors one through four all lost their cooling capabilities when external and backup power supplies failed after the quake and tsunami. tepco has been working to restore external power while trying to cool the reactors. the three workers were exposed to highly radioactive water in the basement of the turbine building of the number three reactor on thursday. the radiation level there was very high. the company revealed that 200 millisieverts per hour were measured at one time. this led to a chang

is that the unconfirmed reports that there has been explosion at the nuclear reactor in fukushima daiichi which is owned by the tokyo electronic power company now japanese media would go on television here showing pictures of white smoke coming out from that nuclear power plant and we don't know exactly what the damage is there but there were fears throughout the last few hours that. the power plant was going it's meltdown it's lost its ability to cool and warning now japanese media is in fact saying that radioactivity in the region has risen since the explosion twenty times and the company that runs the plant at tokyo electric electric power company they say that there have been several injuries to their employees but those are thank you very much for that update we will be going back to you throughout the day thank you ira bennett who is in tokyo for us. oh just a recap of what's happening breaking news at this hour a japanese government official says there's shaking and smoke near the a fukushima daiichi plant you talk you electric power company which runs the plant says some of the wo

the smoke was detected from the unit number 3 over the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. give me the update, please. >> it's really difficult to see the inside of the reactor unit. it's very difficult to know the direct cause of the smoke. investigation and analysis will continue. and the irradiation level and the condition of the spent fuel storage fuel will be monitored in order to identify the cause of the smoke. >> kobayashi of tv asahi. about the government -- provisional government restriction level, this level was exceeded but no impact on human health. and what is the meaning, relevance of this government standard, government level? do you think this level should be kept? >> we now have this nuclear accident, and we are now required to control this situati situation. the radiation, release of the radiation must be constantly monitor monitored. so therefore, we have decided that the monitoring and the survey should be initiated if at certain levels of the radiation was detected. so potential impact on the human health will be monitored on an ongoing basis. but even

military to help prevent a meltdown at fukushima daiichi plant.ster called on the entire nation to unite. japan's nuclear safety agency raised the severity level from a four to five on a seven level scale. and new counts, show that more than 16,000 people is confirmed dead or missing since the quake and tsunami hit a week ago. >> a group of eighth grade students visiting the bay area from japan will return home today bringing with them the memories of the brief visit to america and much needed supplies. lisa amin gulezian has our story. >> reporter: what can be more american than bowling, as the host families in livermore want the visiting students from japan to leave with. everyone knows that these eighth graders are returning to the unknown. they are from a city roughly 200 miles from the leaking nuclear power plant. >> i just want to ensure they are safe. >> reporter: the group of 20 left japan saturday, one day after the tsunami and earthquake. their parents specifically asked their host families to limit how much information these students ha

yes this is quite a serious report and whether the weather to radiation is coming from fukushima daiichi reactor number one or number three which is also having problems or more locally is a very important question to sort of i would hazard to guess that it's coming from fukushima daichi number one now there are different types of radiation being released into the atmosphere different types of isotopes the good news is that a lot of the steam which extinct in the explosion from day to reactor number one building yesterday is relatively light isotopes that is ice isotopes such as nitrogen nitrogen sixteen these isotopes have very short half life span and can really cause long term damage to human helps a more serious problem is that they have also detected isotopes of iodine and cesium in the area around the fukushima explosion these are much heavier isotopes and that means that if they get into the human body or if they get into the soil with water supply they can cause long term radiation poisoning and ok as you rightly said it has to be determined where exactly that radiation is coming

with hoses to desperately all day to day dump seawater in a crippled nuclear reactor three at the daiichi nuclear nuclear plant reactor three is the world's biggest worry right now since it contains tons of twenty of the deadliest element on the face of the earth the water is to keep the fuel rods in the nuclear waste in the reactor cooled runner from catching on fire or even exploding. those efforts so far have been largely ineffective as most of the water from the helicopter dissipates in the wind before it reaches the reactor and trucks have to be constantly pulled back to be extremely high levels of radiation officials say they're close to restoring power to reactor two but whether or not the cooling pumps that reactor is still operational even if the electricity is successfully restored which has not yet happened is another question and there are still serious concerns about cooling pools filled with nuclear waste about reactor four yesterday in a congressional hearing the chairman of the u.s. nuclear regulatory commission gregory jacks are warned that he believed all the water in th

how is the japanese government and the japanese media handling what's going on at the fukushima daiichi plant well it's nonstop coverage on television and. newspapers are full of. pages and pages and pages of stuff. so certainly it's becoming very good but there's a certain panic here and. when i saw the emperor go on television yesterday i thought well. this is interesting. he was of course the. story was a big tim's in the north. and families have lost people but i think the subtext of that was that here i am in my palace in tokyo i'm not taking a crystal you know please you know don't panic everything's going to be all right about this nuclear situation yeah although i was reading today and i was the financial times that every that the bankers literally was just the banks to have chartered all the private planes out of out of tokyo it's just incredible anyhow you've done extensive work on both china and japan's role in the global economy how significant of an impact will this disaster have on the rest of the world's economy and why and how. i think the impact will be considerable the

daiichi has actually collapsed now. from what's believed to have been an explosion they still don't know they are still can't confirm that it was in the explosion but as you said their fear is that the plant has lost its cooling system there of course on japanese television and check japanese media here is a coolant in the system that used to cool down the reactor following it being switched off after the earthquake is the temperature there is actually over one hundred degrees centigrade which suggests that it's actually had the cooling system knocked out it's not working anymore there and from then on the fear is that it's going to melt down and that's what's believed to have caused the tension explosion still seeing white smoke on japanese television coming out of the. nuclear reactor bear in shima and the government has actually evacuated the people living in three kilometers radius of that plant fearing the nuclear fallout is there are reports the japanese media saying that radiation levels in that area twenty times

military to help prevent a meltdown at fukushima daiichi plant.ilitary fire trucks including one borrowed from the u.s. have reached the cooling pool in building three. the safety agency raised the severity agency of the nuclear crisis from a 4 to a 5 on a 7 level scale. 16,000 people have been confirmed dead or missing since the quake and tsunami struck a week ago. >>> some dramatic video emerging from survivors that barely escaped the tsunami a week ago. this was taken in sendai. car and the people behind the camera were in a white taxi minutes earlier and it was floating away. they had others stranded in nearby trees and on top of cars. >> group of students in japan will return home today bringing memories of a brief visit to america and much needed supplies. lisa amin gulezian has our story. >> what can be more american than bowling as these host families want visiting students from japan to leave with. these eighth graders are returning to the unknown. they are from a town roughly 200 miles from the leaking nuclear power plant. >> i just want

after a new fire led to increasing levels of radiation spreading from four reactors of fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. they warned residents to stay indoors. they say the levels are not stable but could be dangerous after prolonged exposure. in tokyo there is slightly elevated levels but it's considered too small to threaten the 39 memorial people that live there. from the latest, here is the reporter by telephone. >> this is country that has been on edge since the massive quake but word of another explosion at fukushima daiichi brought concerns to new lel. it occurred at the second reactor at 6:00 in the morning and it sparked immediate concern because that reactor out of all three was the most seriously damaged. crews have been working around the clock to kill the reactor to kill it with sea water, efforts failed this time. emergency workers were withdrawn from the plant and they were told to evacuate immediately. prime minister on a nationally televised address said that evacuations are in place and stay indoors and monitor radiation levels. officials are quick to point out they are

explosions and fires are reported at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. radiation levels there are up. kron 4's jonathan bloom has the latest at the plant and the overall radiation threat there and here. >> reporter: an explosion at fukushima daiichi sents a cloud of smoke and huge chunks of debris flying into the air. the latest of flea explosions after last week's earthquake and tsunami. the four nuclear reactor are housed here and in this before and after picture, you can see where one of the walls was blown off. those officials said the radiation leaks at the plant were not enough to cause health concerns, the prime minister now asked people to stay at home with the windows closed. those who lost their home thins earthquake and tsunami filed fine evacuation centers. meanwhile members of the u.s. navy may have been exposed to radiation while performing search and rescue missions from helicopter. 17 crew members were exposed to low amounts of radiation. the navy said follow-up tests indicate they will be fine. though some expressed concern radiation cou

that order came after a knew fire led to increasing levels of radiation from the fukushima daiichi plant. they say the water inside the storage pool for a damaged reactor may be failing. the at some time of four reactors at the plant have been damaged and there are glimmers of hope. they pulled a 70-year-old woman from the rubble four days after the disaster hit. secretary of state hillary clinton has met with japan's ambassador to offer u.s. assistance. here is the latest. >> in parts of japan hit by an earthquake flattened by a tsunami, a third risk now looms, fears of nuclear meltdown. >> this veekt says it's the most frightening thing but signs of what is happening at the fukushima daiichi plant are not good. all four reactors have had issues including three exposes explosions. >> the prime minister says the leaked radiation level is rather high. >> now we are talking about levels that can impact human health. i would like all of you to take this information calmly. keep inside the house. >> japanese television echoed the warnings affecting 140,000 people. 70,000 have already evacuat

tokyo has also been affected you are looking at pictures of the of fukushima number one our focus daiichi plant which is a very nuclear emergency where the today just right now a few minutes ago the nuclear safety commission of japan says that a meltdown is possible. from. the author to see more author an anti a nuclear activists harvey wasserman told r.t. but the appliance in fukushima looks looks to be a weak link in a chain that coolies the situation into a worst case scenario. they may not have the capability of cooling this reactor. it would appears to be the case is that the batteries even a backup generators are not working and if that's the case then they're going to have to flood the reactor core and if they do that it's highly likely they'll be major radiation releases i've seen also and some of the reports indications that the pressure inside the containment is twice the design capability now that means that the only way they can prevent the containment from blowing is to release radiation outside the stacks that means that gases are going to go out radiation is going to go out

this is a power plant that is the same time@as the fukushima daiichi power plant. the pool should be filled with water like this. the water has two roles to play. one is to cool the spent fuel the second role is to make sure that the radiation from the spent fuel does not leak outside. in this earthquake the cooling system for this pool was no longer operational and therefore the water in the pool evaporated and after the fuel was exposed, radiation leaked out of the building. you can see steam coming out of reactor 3 and this shows the water is evaporating this was on the fifth day after the earthquake. an official says the steam coming out of reactor number three shows that this is quite a serious situation right after the accident. people were focusing on the nuclear fuel rods on the reactor itself. however, this fuel rod is protected by the vessel as well as the reactor containment vessel. the spent fuel which has gone through its nuclear fission becaus of that it didn't have any protection against the leakage of water. this accident showed the blind spot for e

the mass i have earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern japan causing heavy damage to the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. workers at the plant have to deal with high radiation levels as efforts to restart cooling systems in the athe reactor buildings. on thursday, three workers were take on the the hospital after being exposed to a high level of radiation. two of the men could be suffering from so-called beta burns. they are similar to regular burns but it could be several weeks before their severity and complications are known. the workers were standing on a flooded basement floor when they tried to reconnect power lines in the turbine building next to the number three reactor building. the radiation level on the surface of the water was 400 millisieverts. the maximum level of radiation exposure allowed for nuclear plant workers in japan is 100 millisieverts, but a health and labor ministry has recently raised the limit to 250 millisieverts for emergency crews at the fukushima plant. >>> translator: presuming the radiation level will be low enough the night of 24th, the workers did

we know that the damage to the nuclear reactor at fukushima daiichi poses a substantial risk to people nearby. >> u.s. pledged medical and humanitarian support. >> we are working aggressively to support our japanese ally in this time of explored charge, search and rescue teams are on the ground to help recovery efforts. we have flown hundreds of rescue mission and distributed water and food to the japanese people. >>> and in new fallout from the investigation into the contra costa drug task force. district attorney's office now says it will dismiss about dozen cases involving arrests made by norman welch the former head of the task force, they are facing challengers of selling drugs they stole from drug task force seizures. contra costa public defender is calling the d.a.'s office to remove itself from the case. >>> jurors in barry bonldz trial won't get to hear some of the most dramatic evidence when the trial starts on monday. a federal judge has thrown out voicemail of bonds' former mistress. prosecutors hoped to use the voice mails who they said are profane and threatening and are

there are nuclear reactors in trouble at the fukushima daiichi plant.government here being completely forthcoming? this couple tells us they understand the government doesn't want to scare the people, but they also suspect they are not getting the full picture. and a sign of just how dire the situation has become, we've now learned the japanese government has reached out to the iaea, international atomic energy agency, and to the u.s. they're in a desperate race to avoid a catastrophic meltdown here. david muir, abc news, koriyama, japan. >>> amid the ongoing horror in japan comes a miraculous story of survival. while combing through rubble of one village, the japanese defense force came across a 4-month-old girl. it's believed she actually spent three days alone. somehow, the good news is, they found her father and were able to reunite them. minutes after that, though, came another tsunami warning, but it was followed by the all-clear. what a lucky, lucky, little girl. >> unbelievable. >>> as we heard at the top of the half hour, the tokyo stock exchan

but signs what is happening at fukushima daiichi are not good. all four reactors have issues including three explosions. radioactive material could be leaking from the base of the reactor. the leaked radiation level is rather high. >> now we are talking about levels that can impact human health. i would like all of you to take this information calmly. >> keep inside the work places or houses. >> they echoed the warnings affecting more than 140,000 people within a 12 mile radius. 70,000 have already evacuated. they are checking people to see if they have been exposed to radiation. >> this woman says i worry very much about radiation. i don't know what to do. even in tokyo, there are reports of slightly higher radiation levels but they say the levels are too small to threaten people there. hillary clinton met with the foreign minister who expressed gratitude. >> today the world comes together to support japan in the hour of need. >> the japanese government asked the u.s. for advice. so eight more experts or on their way to offer help. >> u.s. offic

or vermont yankee for example and daiichi and that. for example the vermont yankee plant which has an elevated pool has roughly five times the amount of spent fuel in all of the individual reactors. so so if they hit the waste for the nuclear waste pool is spent fuel pool. there would be not necessarily a tonic or i don't even think it is not at all but there would be an explosion that would it would be old and bob well what what we what we really i wrote this paper in january two thousand and two and inspired several my colleagues and i to do a much more in-depth look at this time we published a paper in january two thousand and three and what we pointed out was that if something an earthquake or somebody or some people could cause the water to drain in these pools that the the zirconium cladding the metal of the surrounds the irradiated uranium which contains a great deal of radioactivity could result in a catastrophic fire releasing very large amounts of long live radiation and that we calculated that the radiation release would cre

good news is that that in the daiichi reactor is entirely water so and material venting into the atmosphere will likely be just steam radioactive steam in the case of chevron noble the reactor was moderated by graphite and ground. holds the radiation and spread so much further as dust and gas so. that was the significant problem with sharon no go to the neutron moderator in the airplane not react it was different and the radiation could spread much further at the daiichi site there are i believe six active reactors all of which have shut down and again i don't have all the information but at the moment it appears as though reactor building number one is the site of the explosion now this is the oldest of the six reactors at daiichi it was built in one nine hundred seventy nine so it suggests that the oldest structure on the site was also the weakest people are being advised to stay in their homes not drink water turn off their air conditioners so it sounds like the government is apparently prefer significant nuclear event. well the european union for their gathering a team of experts look i

causes that a large explosion as we saw yesterday whether the radiation is coming from fukushima daiichi reactor number one or number three or more locally is a very important question to sort of i would hazard to guess that it is coming from fukushima daiichi number one and now there are different types of radiation being released into the atmosphere the good news is that a lot of the steam which exploded in the explosion from day to reactor number one building yesterday is relatively light isotopes and these isotopes cannot really cause the long term damage to human health the more serious problem is that they have also detected isotopes of iodine and cesium in the area around the fukushima explosion these are much heavier isotopes and that means that if they get into the human body or if they get into the soil rather supply they can cause long term radiation poison and. and breaking news this hour there's been another reactor blast a big fukushima nuclear plant also knew three need to hide tsunamis moving toward the northeast when he's closed with authorities warning may strike client

causes that a large explosion as we saw yesterday whether the radiation is coming from fukushima daiichi reactor number one or number three or more locally is a very important question is sort of i would hazard to guess that it's coming from fukushima daiichi number one now there are different types a great nation being released into the atmosphere good news is that a lot of the steam which exists in the explosion from daiichi reactor number one building yesterday is relatively light isotopes these isotopes cannot really cause long term damage to human health a more serious problem is that they have also detected isotopes of iodine and cesium in the area around the fukushima explosion these are much heavier isotopes and that means that if they get into the human body or if they get into the soil or the water supply they can cause long term radiation poisoning well do stay with us throughout the day for the latest developments in japan and you can also log on to our web site at all to go home. so you have some other news now forces loyal to colonel gadhafi a gaining momentum in the east h

now, the latest from tokyo. >> workers return to the damage fukushima daiichi plant on wednesday after being evacuated. the latest in setbacks with a country still struggling. another fire was discovered wednesday morning at the number four reactor building. government officials are concerned about a possible breach of the containment vessel for reactor number 3. they are worried it could be releasing radioactive steam. >> the fukushima daiichi number 3 reactor has been seen white smoke coming out. >> self-defense force had to abort a containment crisis abort ago maneuver. >> it is cause for concern. >> to have one fire is serious, but to have one fire when you have problems at three other plants is very serious. and each time one of these fires the danger to those fuel rods increases. they are not contained. unlike the reactor at one, two, three and there is no big concrete shielding for them. if they are compromised it would be very serious, indeed. >> there was some positive news. japanese stock market rebounded after two days of losses. nikkei ended up 4 the points or 5.7%. -- 478

. >>> video footage from the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant shows what appears to be steam or smoke rising from four reactor buildings. this footage was shot from an nhk helicopter at around 7:00 a.m. on thursday from a distance of over 30 kilometers from the plant. what appears to be steam was rising from the number one reactor building for the first time. 'steam was also seen riding from the buildings of the number 2, number 3, and number 4 reactors. the nuclear and industrial safety agency says that steam was rising from the four reactors as of 10:00 a.m. and that all of it was colorless. at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant, work to cool down the storage pool after reactor building has been resumed. on wednesday, black smoke was seen rising from the number 3 reactor building. for safety reasons, work was suspended on restoring the cooling systems of reactor buildings one through four. the nuclear and industrial safety agency says at five 5:35 a.m. on thursday, the black smoke could no longer be seen. >> about the spent fuel pool on march 23rd, from 11:03 to 13:20,

the daiichi nuclear plant before and after. on the ground on street after street a kind of twisted sculpture garden. come with me now for one walk down one street, and you'll see what we mean. the book store, not one car, not one truck but three all plowed in on top of each other, and you can see it's layered. it's stacked one upon the other. one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. you can't even count, and this was the only way to get gasoline? throughout the city people patiently waiting hours for gasoline. the line stretching into infinity. waiting an hour, and you'll wait as long as it takes? >> yes. >> reporter: this is unbelievable. 500 cars, and that will be it. for a city this size, this is a city of a million people. on other streets other lines for food. how long have you been in line? >> translator: two, three hours. >> reporter: do you have any water at home at all? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: none, nothing? >> nothing. >> reporter: hi. what do you want to buy? this young man told me he has come to buy a

. >> reporter: another explosion at the damaged daiichi nuclear plant in fukushima. this time six plant workers were injured during an attempt to release a small amount of radioactive steam from the quake-hit daiichi reactor number 3. the explosion occurred during this exercise. but officials say the reactor's core remains intact. the blast was felt 25 miles away and triggered an alert for anyone left inside the nuclear evacuation zone to stay indoors. still japanese officials insist that radiation levels at the daiichi plant remain within legal limits. celia hatton, cbs news, fukushima, japan. >>> u.s. naval vessels supporting japanese aid efforts have moved away from the coast near those damaged nuclear plants. the "uss ronald reagan" is one of two u.s. aircraft carrier groups off japan's coast. the "reagan" passed through a radioactive cloud from the stricken reactors. crew members on deck reportedly received a month's worth of natural radiation in about an hour. officials say none are experiencing ill effects from the exposure. >>> engineers are trying to prevent

developing story japanese officials are reassuring locals that radiation levels at the fukushima daiichi one at power plant are within the legal limits or this this comes after a second explosion at the site which injured eleven people of the reactors are said to be intact at the moment and officials claim another blast is unlikely people within a twenty kilometer radius of the facility have been evacuated to safety but of course all this follows the earthquake triggered tsunami which devastated the country at least twenty two people have already been exposed to radiation and now eighteen hundred people are. confirmed dead a bit but number is expected to rise and exceed ten thousand prime minister an auto plant has called it the worst crisis since world war two where the government has just announced that large parts of the country will be suffering power outages arius will be divided into groups and each one will have a three hour blackout it's all part of the plan to keep the country's crippled electricity grid operational archy's i've heard bennett is in sendai one of the towns worst

is a very important question to sort of i would hazard to guess that it is coming from fukushima daiichi number one now there are different types of radiation being released into the atmosphere the good news is that a lot of the steam which exists in the explosion from daiichi reactor number one building yesterday is relatively light isotopes and these isotopes cannot really cause long term damage to human health and more serious problem is that they have also detected isotopes of iodine and cesium in the area around the fukushima explosion and these are much heavier isotopes and that means that if they get into the human body or if they get into the soil or the water supply they can cause long term radiation poisoning and wasco is pledging to stand shoulder to shoulder with tokyo during the crisis a plane carrying russian rescue workers is heading to japan with another due to take off from the country therese on monday and as election year is escapades next for tehran is no stranger to bailing with the nuclear threat facing japan having first hand experience of the world's worst atomic

different thing from trying to move solids well what we're concerned about now is that fukushima daiichi units two and three have demonstrated that all the barrier systems are failing that this insidious toxic substance that is that knows no time for inflicting harm and danger is now out in the environment but the news this morning was that a trench that's just one hundred or so feet from the sea of japan. it is now filled with radioactive water that is on the same radiation readings as what's inside the reactor building so containment has failed for units two and three and we're now concerned that all the water that's been poured into these reactors the salt water the fresh water is now coming out like a sieve and getting into the environment so that water in radioactive water out that's that's the scenario and it's not just radioactive water it's water containing particles of radioactive material like cesium in uranium. and plutonium is it not we're literally flushing the reactors and the reactor contents into the environment and mostly into the ocean. the ocean is a big. big concern b