we want the situation at furyk daiichi to be resolved quickly. so we can return home safely. >> farmers and fishermen have faced bans, restrictions and red tape. >> translator: at any point the ocean to be clean again. that's my sincere wish. >> tokyo electric power company workers have a lot to do before fukushima daiichi is under control. they need to set up new cooling systems for reactors one through three. they also need to shore up the structure that supports reactor four's spent fuel pool, because it might be too unstable to endure another earthquake. on top of that, tepco workers need to haul away a large amount of radioactive debris. another big task is the removal and decontamination of thousands of tons of radioactive water that has built up at fukushima daiichi because water has been pumped manually into the reactors to keep them cool. despite all of these hurdles, tepco said it will get fukushima daiichi into cold shutdown by january of next year. >> now to our interview with the spokesperson for the nuclear and industrial safety age

the problems at fukushima daiichi are still causing concern. a growing number of people want to make japan less dependent on nuclear power in the long term. the government needs to open discussions on how it can continue to generate nuclear energy safely while adding newer sources of power. >> nhk world's junko noda reporting for us tonight. junko, thank you. >> thank you. >>> tokyo electric power company says tonight it has succeeded in getting a system to decontaminate radioactive water working at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. plant operator tepco says a u.s. made device continues to perform at only one-tenth of its design capacity to absorb cesium even made device continues to perform at only one-tenth of its design capacity to absorb cesium eve made device continues to perform at only one-tenth of its design capacity to absorb cesium evema perform at only one-tenth of its design capacity to absorb cesium even after workers adjusted a faulty valve setting. however, they say test runs have shown when combined with a french decont

agency says there were 800 to 1,000 kilograms of hydrogen in two of the reactors at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant shortly after it was hit by the quake and tsunami in march. the nuclear and industrial safety agency studied the data that tokyo electric power company provided last month. the agency says about 1,000 kilograms of hydrogen were produced in the number one reactor when the fuel rods became exposed two hours after the quake and the metal fuel containers oxidized an hour later. it says the same happened in the number three reactors some 43 hours after the quake, creating the same amount of hydrogen. as a result, hydrogen explosions blew the tops off the number one and three reactor buildings. >>> the japanese government will restructure its nuclear organizations to clarify roles and responsibilities if a nuclear disaster occurs. nhk obtained a draft of a report. the report says the government will make the nuclear and industrial safety agency the country's nuclear regulator independent from the ministry of economy, trade and industry. it also says that the operator of

it's located far away from the troubled fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. concerns linger that agricultural products grown there may be contaminated with radioactive substances. now, farmers are trying to find ways to cope with the drop in rice sales abroad. they're fighting these food fears by giving their clients access to key information. mouainsfice are stored in this warehouse. a total of 20 tons of rice is awaiting export from warehouses like this. >> translator: the rice was supposed to be shipped overseas from mid-march to late april, but shipments have been canceled. >> the town of shoni, yamagata prefecture is 180 kilometers northwest of the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. it's known as japan's biggest rice producing communities. the ceo of an agricultural corporation founded by eight local farmers. the farmers began exporting rice two years ago. they aim to expand overseas sales to offset sluggish business in the domestic market. >> translator: cooking instructions are written in four different languages on the back of the bag. >> reporter

the meeting will be the first of its kind since the accident at the fukushima daiichi plant. since the accident most nuclear power plants in japan have halted operations. restarting the reactors in genkai saga prefecture has the backing of the local mayor but the prefectural governor is maintaining a cautious stance. at the meeting it will be explained by the nuclear industrial safety agency. the meeting will be broadcast live on cable tv and the internet. the governor, however, has been criticized for its decision to choose only around seven residents to participate in the meeting. many local people are saying this will severely limit the wide range of opinions needed. a group of doctors has found that the estimated level of accumulated internal radiation exposure for people living in fukushima prefecture exceeded three-any he will sieverts. doctors say the level is not a health risk but advising people not to eat vegetables grown in levels where raid yigs levels are high. the researchers include doctors who have provided medical care to atomic bomb survivors. the group cond

the company that made the yarn is located 125 kilometers from the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. in recent years, a growing number of overseas fashion houses were using the fiber. until the march 11th quake, the company exported about 100 different type, but at the end of april about $97,000 worth of yarn was left in a warehouse. the shipment was halted because three overseas clients requested that the yarn be tested for radio acradioactivity. masaki sato is the company's president. with domestic sales dwindling, he expanded his business with overseas designer brands. for this year the firm set a sales target of over four times that of the previous year. >> translator: i didn't think the impact would be this big. i'm really concerned. >> this person handles exports. he tried to convince the clients of the yarn's safety by providing them with radioactivity data from where the firm's plant is located. the data he sent showed 0.129 microseiverts per hour, a level that by japanese standards poses no immediate threat to human health. nevertheless, one of the clients canceled their ord

on thursday we'll tell you about the psychological impact of the accident at fukushima daiichi.eople living near the nuclear plant have plenty of concerns about radiation. we'll travel with japanese and u.s. doctors who are trying to help them. >>> anti-government forces in yemen have stepped up their offensive against a major southern city, increasing the pressure on president ali abdullah saleh to step down. armed tribesmen opposing saleh's rule have pushed outovernment forces and seized nearly all areas of the city of taiz by tuesday. in the capital sanaa, anti-government demonstrators, mainly young people, gathered for a rally dubbed a million man march on ttdz afternoon. they say they will block saleh's return to yemen. saleh is receiving medical treatment in neighboring saudi arabia for injuries sustained in a rocket attack on his presidential palace last week. a report says the president sustained burns over 40% of his body. but he's said he will stay in power and go back to yemen soon. saleh also faces growing international pressure to step down. u.s. secretary of state

. >>> more workers at the >>> more workers at the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant are being pulled off the job because they might have been overexposed to radiation. japan's health and labor ministry says six workers could have received doses above the allowable limit of 250 millisieverts. tokyo electric power company gave the ministry an update monday of its latest round of checks on plant workers. the ministry says the amount of radiation exposure was nearly 500 millisieverts for each of the six tepco employees in question. the maximum allowable dose for nuclear workers in japan was raised to 250 millisieverts from 100 after the crisis started. an additional 94 workers have been exposed to between 100 and 250 millisieverts. in late may, two tepco employees on duty at reactors number three and four were confirmed as having received doses of more than twice the emergency limit. the health and labor ministry has told the utility to give all overexposed workers thorough aminations. it says it is very regrettable so many of them have come into contact with such high levels of radiation. >

>> translator: a >> translator: a state of cold shutdown at the reactors of the damaged fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant would lay the groundwork for my resignation. >> the >> the plant's operator, tokyo electric power company, says it will achieve a cold shutdown of the reactors by january 2021. however, democratic party senior member and former prime minister yukio hatoyama sharply reacted to kan's remarks. hatoyama said it was agreed that kan would resign after reconstruction law passes and second supplementary budget plan is formulated, which is expected in about a month. secretary-general nobody te r rowirow ishihara called on kan to ishihara called on kan to resign as soon as possible, saying he will lose the trust of the international community. >>> the operator of the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant says it has successfully lowered the temperature of the spent fuel pool in the number two reactor building. tokyo electric power company said on thursday that after it started operating a new cooling system on tuesday, the temperature in the number two pool quickly dropped b

the rules were imposed after the accident at the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. the canadian government said on monday it had confirmed the safety of japanese food as all the products it tested were below canada's radiation lilts. the agricultural ministry said canada had demanded documents to verify the safety of all products imported from fukushima, ibaraki and ten other prefectures. canada is the first country to remove the restrictions, but 40 nations and territories continue to restrict food imports from japan following the nuclear accident. the ministry will urge the nations and territories still maintaining restrictions to make scientific judgments based on the results of radiation monitoring. >>> we focus today on china's inlaind areas, central china and especially the city of wuhan has been undergoing a rapid economic transformation, situated at the geographic crossroads between major cities so it has been developing to serve as the hub for china's next generation high speed rail network. the high speed rail lines are the longest, covering 8,000 kilomete

a system to decontaminate radioactive water has gone into service at the fukushima daiichi plant. the system is considered key to deal with the build up to bring the reactors under control. the tokyo electric power company activated the system on friday after conducting final test runs. the utility found water leaking from one of the systems four components forcing the test runs to be called off on thursday. tepco found out that the valve in the pipes were mistakenly closed and had clogged the water which damaged the safety valve in one of the units. the broken valve was replaced. now this is a battle against time and radioactive water is building up in the reactors' facilities as we speak. tepco hopes to decontaminate the water and recirculate the water. >>> tepco has drawn up a revised plan to set a target for cooling down the reactors. measure s control workers exposure was set. officials of tepco briefed reporters on friday. it was the utility's second review of the road map that was released in mid-april. under the plan, tepco says it hopes to cool the reactors by decontamina

. >>> tokyo electric power company, the operator of the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant says it skipped testing the plant's water types as scheduled. on monday, tepco was forced to suspend a water recycling operation due to leaks. the utility began running the filtering system on monday, but it had to halt the operation after only 90 minutes as the treated water was leaking from pipes that were not fastened properly. the system is designed to recycle contaminated water to be used to cool the reactors. the operator says it failed to check the four kilometers of piping because it did not find any problem during an inspection more than two weeks ago. the company says it will review that decision. circulating the decontaminated water around the reactors is considered an important step in stabilizing them by mid-july as planned. it will also help prevent the volume of waste water from increasing. tepco says it will repair the leaks and hopes to resume the water circulation soon. >>> an operator of waste incineration plants in eastern tokyo says it has found a high concentration of radioactiv

>>> tokyo electric power company resumed the operation to cool damaged reactors at the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant on tuesday, but it says it found minor water leaks in a newly installed cooling system. tepco said it traced the leak to a joint connecting plastic hoses near a pump injecting water. it did not check the possibility of a water leak before starting the system on monday. tepco's so-called circulating injection cooling operation is designed to decontaminate radioactive waste water in the reactor and turbine buildings and then use the treated water to cool the reactors. it says 14 tons of recycled water and two tons of freshwater have been injected into the reactors per hour. the utility says it will continue to inject water while watching out for more leaks. >>> the japanese government has decided to help fukushima prefecture conduct health surveys of its residents with estimates on the spread of radioactive substances from the fukushima daiichi plant. the fukushima prefectural government is scheduled to conduct the research for more than 2 million residents of the prefectu

the locations include the fukushima daiichi and daini plants. the nuclear safety agency has given the utilities one month to implement safety measures. >>> china says it will invite firms from japan's disaster-stricken regions to its biggest trade fair to support the country's reconstruction. commerce secretary or rather commerce ministry spokesman yao jian made the statement wednesday. a special zone will be set up for japanese firms at the fair in guangzhou and in act. imports from japan have risen less than 10% year on year since the march 11th earthquake and tsunami. falling imports of automotive parts and electronic goods have affected not only japanese firms operating in china, but also chinese firms. chinese plan is seen as supporting not just japan's reconstruction but curbing the impact of the disaster on its own economy. >>> the 21-member asia-pacific economic cooperation forum plans to discuss corporate disaster management when they meet in the japanese city of sendai in august. the city is close to the disaster zone. the meeting is s

the disaster at the fukushima daiichi has spread radio activity beyond the evacuation zone. medical experts and scientists held a meeting in tokyo to address their concerns. >> reporter: doctors and radiation scientists gathered in tokyo to share their knowledge. nearly 150 people were at the meeting. they are concerned, how much danger are we in? what can i do to protect my health? some spoke about the unease that they are experiencing. he had to leave his home about 33 kilometers from the nuclear plant. >> officials visited the village and all they told us is that the area is generally safe. that could mean it is safe so we won't do anything. now they say they will carry out tests in the area. i hope they will take action based on the results. >> reporter: they say that the radiation is too low to cause problems in the short term but say that they have a limited understanding of how prolonged exposure to low doses of radiation will affect human health. the doctor pointed out that the japanese government hasn't given detailed instructions on radiation exposure. he's a membe

this is the on of yumoto, 25 miles away from the fukushima daiichi plant.t's always been known as a sleepy resort town. now it's home away from home for workers battling the worst nuclear disaster since chernobyl. men like truck driver this man, father of two, left the safety of his home for a six month stint at fukushima daiichi. $150 a day. >> i'm not proud of the way i've lived. so i'm trying to be better. >> reporter: buses pick the men up at 6:45 a.m. then a one hour ride in sweltering heat to the nuclear plant part of a team that sorts radioactive garbage at fukushima daiichi. he says when i started i was really scared. i still am. 3-4 hours is the limit. it's so hot you wouldn't last longer than that. coworker isaotoda, a computer programmer. he quit his job when he spotted a help wanted aid. the wo een crueling. >> it's hard to breathe with the mask on, he says, when your nose is running or iy you can't take it off. his parent's no matter what. his parents survived the other than catastrophe, the bombing of hiroshima. since i was a child my parents

now tepco doesn't just have to worry about keeping fukushima daiichi's volatile reactors cool. it also needs to stabilize the spent fuel rods at the nuclear plant. it appears to be making progress on that front. the utility says the new cool system for the number three reactor spent fuel storage pool should be functional in a week. as we've been telling you, the march 11th accident crippled the cooling mechanisms that control reactors number one through four and their fuel storage pools. tepco has been working to install systems that will chill water and circulate it inside those pools. the utility maintains it restored full and stable cooling functions for the number two reactor's pool in late may. work to install a similar cooling system for the number three reactor was completed wednesday. a test run is scheduled for thursday. but tepco hasn't been as successful with the number four reactor spent fuel pool. a hydrogen explosion in march damaged water pipes that are connected to it. the company is reviewing its installation plan. workers entered the fifth floor of the number

. >>> the operator of the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant will begin to cover the number one reactor building with polyester sheets this month to prevent the dispersal of radioactive substances. reactor buildings one, three and four were severely damaged by explosions and radioactive elements are still being released into the atmosphere. there are fears that heavy rain may hamper the workers' activities and that the rain water may become contaminated with radioactive materials. to prevent these situations, tokyo electric power company or tepco plans to enclose the reactor buildings with polyester sheets. the covering of the number one reactor building will begin later this month. the roughly one millimeter thick sheets will be attached to the steel frames of the 54-meter-high building. >> translator: i think it's thick for a sheet. it will prevent the release of

. >>> at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant, leaking water is threatening to decontaminate highly radioactive water, key to bringing the plant under control. tokyo electric power company or tepco had been planning to start full operation of the water treatment system on friday. it has been carrying out test runs. but a u.s. made device to remove radioactive materials mainly cesium stopped running on thursday. the utility company says it's examining the cause and trying to fix the problem, but it adds that suspension may delay full scale operation of the water treatment system. the highly radioactive water is building up at a rate of 500 tons a day as freshwater is being poured onto the reactors to cool them down. the main facility to store radioactive water reached capacity on thursday and any delay in launching the treatment system could cause contaminated water to overflow in about ten days. water treatment system is a precondition of the company's plan to bring the plant under control. it intends to use the treated water to cool down the reactors. tepco announced the plan to so

the operator of the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant says it has detected high levels of the radioactive substance that tends to accumulate in human bones. tokyo electric power company made the announcement after analyzing soil samples taken on may 9th at the relocations about 500 meters from the number one and number two reactors. the utility detected up to 480 becquerels of radioactive strontium per kilogram of soil. it was higher than what was detected in the soil during the cold war era. this is the second time since april this has been found inside the plant compound. the substance was also detected in soil and plants more than 30 kilometers from the fukushima nuclear power station in march. tokyo electric power says it believes it was released from the damaged plant and it will continue to monitor radiation levels. >>> a team from the international atomic energy agency will submit a summary of its report to the japanese government on wednesday after concluding its investigation into the nuclear disaster in fukushima. the 18 member team inspected the damaged fukushima daiichi nuclea

rocks japan and devastated the fukushima region of course creating the nuclear disaster at the tepco daiichi power plant where we now know that three reactors have melted down and possibly melted throughout today is a very interesting day at the tepco headquarters in central tokyo thousands of people have gathered so much in support of nuclear power believe it or not and thousands more who are walking the streets and organize protests carrying signs and banners and shouting out slogans through loudspeakers against nuclear power saying that there needs to be alternative sources of energy of all this of course and for the tepco headquarters the company responsible for the daiichi power plant one of the reasons why this is important is that within the past week new information has come out saying that tepco at the initial phases of the disaster lied about the amount of radiation that was coming in and tried to downplay the situation saying that the radiation levels were not as bad that there could possibly be a meltdown then of course this past week it was revealed that they cut those numbers i

. >>> tokyo electric power company hopes to resume the decontamination process at fukuima daiichi nuclear power plant as early as tuesday. the water treatment system stopped functions only five hours after its start last friday as high levels of radiation were detected around the instruments used for absorbing radioactive materials. the utility said the water's radiation levels were much higher than expected. on monday tepco conducted tests on different absorbents and concluded that it needs to change them more frequently. it also found that the amount of contaminated water flowing through the system should be varied depending on radiation levels. the unexpected problems arise because the treatment system has never been used with such radioactive water. >> translator: the system has been proven to decontaminate water, and it will be successful. it is true that there have been problems, but we will do our best to solve them. >> the resumption of the water treatment system is urgent, as facilities to store contaminated water at the fukushima plant will reach capacity within a few days. >>>

company says more than 100,000 tons of highly radioactive water has accumulated at the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. the operator warns that the water may overflow later this month during the rainy season and says it is struggling to find a place to store the water after filtering. tepco says a total of 105,100 tons of highly radioactive water has pooled at the first four reactors after water was injected to cool the damaged reactors. it said the water contains an estimated 720,000 terra becquerels of radioactive substances. terra stands for one trillion. the situation is hampering efforts to achieve the ultimate goal of the stabilizing the reactors. on june 15, tepco plans to start using equipment that can filter 1,200 tons of contaminated water a day. in mid august, it will also install an underground storage tank that can hold 10,000 tons of highly radioactive water. the utility fears that the water could overflow if a filter fails to work so it plans to secure more storage facilities. >>> two workers at the troubled nuclear power plant has been exposed. these are first confirmed c

that's what the iaea is saying at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. they praised the response at the plant as exemplary. the power plant was badly damaged after a quake triggered a tsunami in march. >>> former bosnia serb commander is now awaiting charges at the hague. he's facing war crimes of the massacre of 8,000 men and boys in 1995. >>> after 16 days in space, shuttle" endeavour" is back on earth. nasa's 30-year shuttle program will come to an end after the launch of "atlantis" in the coming weeks. those are the headlines. "world business today" starts now. >>> good morning, from cnn london, i'm nina december santos. >> good afternoon from cnn hong kong. i'm andrew stevens and you're watching "world business today." the top stories this wednesday, australia suffers its biggest economic squeeze in 20 years after severe flooding soaks the mining industry. >>> mixed fortunes in the tech sector. apple had its head in the data cloud wu nokia is feeling under the weather. >>> and doubts, mistakes and regrets. not many ceos are big enough to admit them

officially fukushima city is in a safe area eighty kilometers from the daiichi plant reactor one and a full sixty kilometers outside the band danger zone but still radiation levels here are much higher than normal. just to give you an idea of the consistency right now the dagger count is really pretty point two nine a micro ring it's about thirty times what is more than the accepted level but if you come down here to where it just sort of a lot of it collected the radiation will quickly jumped out and it's still climbing earlier we got a reading of night and now i look at my career which is about a thousand times more than was really acceptable level of state regulation. but in order to claim that fukushima is truly safe from leaking radiation the japanese government has had to be creative with the numbers but the government did they change the redish a quantum level standard the levels from one. to twenty million even twenty times. the standards before the accident and now. they raise the. the standard so that they can say it's safe but actually it's a standard house change the new

daiichi you need one two and three and they're fairly stable in code so already asian. exposure is becoming less and less a problem is the water which originated from. what i would introduce into their reactors so we are now at the find there are testing a process of introducing establishing water pretty fine a system people on the ground say that they have doubts about the information that is coming from the government why do you think they have these doubts and what is the government doing to get this information out there. the japanese government tried to. distribute or make. available or they inform asian way that from that call and from wanting systems so i think we hope that.

energy of all of this of course in front of the tepco headquarters the company responsible for the daiichi power plant one of the reasons why this is important is that within the past week new information has come out saying that tepco at the initial phases of the disaster lied about the amount of radiation that was coming in and tried to downplay the situation saying that the radiation levels were not as bad that there could possibly be a meltdown then of course this past week it was revealed that they cut those numbers in a half in fact. the government is not providing proper information and people young and old want to know the truth of the course i know the situation with the radioactive emissions has not changed in the last three months nothing has changed since the very beginning the communities devastated the people have no homes there's no place to walk everything is destroyed also coming to life is that the nuclear fuel not only melted down but possibly melted through the inner containment vessels and into the outer skin are still linings which is a much much more serious problem

of energy of all this of course in front of the tepco headquarters the company responsible for the daiichi power plant one of the reasons why this is important is that within the past week new information has come out saying that tepco at the initial phases of the disaster lied about the amount of radiation that was coming in and trying to downplay the situation saying that the radiation levels were not as bad that there could possibly be a meltdown then of course this past week it was revealed that they cut those numbers in half in fact and that the amounts of the radiation was much much larger than all. of the situation with the radioactive emissions has not changed in the last three months nothing has changed since the very beginning the communities devastated that people have no homes there is no place to walk everything is destroyed one thing that people are worried about is the amount of radioactive water that is in the area this is the beginning of the rainy season and people are worried that with more rain that radioactive water will then spill out and flooding the area causing a l

and exceeding the legal limit even outside the exclusion zone surrounding the stricken fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. others away from reactor number one in particular city radiation levels are much higher than already believed it to be three. and coming up we have all the details. colonel gadhafi pledges he'll never leave libya as he faces off against a chess grandmaster in the devastated capital tripoli meanwhile nato steps up its offensive end eclairs it's expanding operations against libya's government but a fact finding mission on the ground is questioning the alliances methods. that were patients there who had that look like they came from a very specialized weapons and so the issue of the exactly what weapons are being used here is also of great importance to the pentagon says it can't find six point six billion dollars of its money meant for iraq reconstruction even after a lengthy investigation. six am in moscow i'm good to have you with us here on r t our top story a highly toxic radioactive material has been detected in groundwater in seawater samples near the japan's fukush