we have chief cabinet secretary yukio edano way news conference now. >> translator: thanks for waiting. there is a cabinet meeting. i'd like to report to you the outcome. there are two general issues. one issuance of low and personal changes. starting today we are going to have a meeting for the support of the people in the evacuation shelters. the activities of the meeting, in order to have a smooth operation, we have decided to establish a meeting, a liaison meeting to support evacuatees. we will have close contact and confirm and follow up all issues that are necessary to support the victims. mr. matsumoto is the head. mr. katayama, mr. sengoku, mr. hirano are the members of the special meeting. they will serve as the vice chairmen. and the deputy ministers of different departments have attended this meeting. and every other day starting today from noon the meeting will be held. and if you have any questions, please contact the secretariat of the meeting. the defense ministry announced yesterday about high level of cesium that was detected in both areas. what is the assessment of th

those were the press briefing of chief cabinet secretary yukio edano. as he mentioned, preparations are underway to continue cooling down those storage pool rods. and the operations will be carried out from there and the ground. about 30 tokyo firefighters have arrived south of the plant. 139 firefighters are preparing to start spraying water this to the number three reactor building as early as friday afternoon. one of the engines has a 22 meter high water discharging tower used to put out flames in high places for sites that are difficult to access and among the 30 vehicles is a special truck usually used for plane disasters that can discharge 5 tons of water a minute. and meanwhile, japan's self defense forces say the helicopters and fire trucks are getting ready to resume work. they can spray up to 11 tons of water and 80 meters in a few minutes. the defense ministry official says it is starting to start the ground spraying operation on friday afternoon. and now we have analysis of the latest situation at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. >

and here's comes yukio edano. >>> translator: good morning. we have been making announcements from the relevant institution agencies. i have nothing to say so i will just take your questions. >>> translator: yesterday, the metropolitan tokyo government announced that radioactive materials found from the tap water and the tokyo government is distributing bottled water, but the bottled water is in short supply. and the government seems to be considering asking manufacturers to increase their production. what can you tell us about this? >>> translator: well, the water for babies under 12 months, it has been recommended they do not drink this water. so, for -- this is a very low level of radioactive don't which will be not harmful for the health, even if consumed over a long period. for babies under 12 months this time, the tokyo metropolitan government took this measure based on a very conservative set of standards. so for other people, people other than babies, the radiation levels will have almost no effect. therefore, people other than those w

yukio edano asked people not to consume these vegetables for precaution. there were many questions asked. however, he repeated, there's no immediate health risk or no serious long-term affect for the moment. >>> going on at the fukushima nuclear power plant, tokyo electric power company is preparing to test the pump for the number three reactors' cooling system. the other company switched on the lighting in the central reactor krool control room for the first time since the quake on march 11th. they will allow staff to carry out more intensive work. power cables with were connected to all six reactor buildings on monday but the company needs to check the equipment before it can turn the electricity back on. once the central control rooms are functioning again, tepco says it will be able to monitor the water levels in the reactors as well as the storage pools holding spent yoouk nuclear fuel. >>> moderately strong earthquake shook japan on wednesday morning. the strongest tremors were felt in fukushima prefecture. no tsunami warnings were issues. the quakes

now you are looking at the prime minister's office in tokyo where chief cabinet secretary yukio edano's press conference is about to begin. he will update us on the developments at the fukushima power plant. we have been looking at the smoke billowing from fukushima number one power plant. we don't know -- we haven't got any information as to which reactor it is coming from. we are waiting for the, all the information and data as the story develops. this footage you are looking at was taken about a half hour ago by nhk helicopter flying 30 kilometers away from the plant. you can see that white smoke is billowing. we do not know whether it was ignited by fire, or if it was a hydrogen explosion caused by heat in the reactor. we are right now waiting for a press conference to begin by chief cabinet secretary yukio edano to update us on the developments at fukushima power plants. an nhk helicopter has been taking footage of what appears to be white smoke billowing from the fukushima daiichi power plant. the footage was taken -- this footage, you can see, was taken around 30 minutes ago from

first we have chief cabinet secretary -- chief cabinet secretary yukio edano entering the room. we are expecting to see prime minister naoto kan with a special message to the japanese people. here we have prime minister naoto kan. this is live footage from tokyo, prime minister kan's office. >> translator: i would like to speak to the japanese citizens. the situation at the fukushima number 1 nuclear power plant. please listen to my message calmly. the fukushima nuclear power plant, as has been explained so far, after the earthquake and tsunami the nuclear reactors have shut down, and ordinarily the emergency diesel engines that should have been used to cool down the reactors have all gone out of function. every possible method has been used to cool down the reactor. however, for reactor number 1 and reactor number 3 hydrogen came out, causing a hydrogen explosion. and also for reactor 4 we have seen fire. and radiation has spread from these reactors and the reading of the level seems very high. and there is still a very high risk of further radioactive material coming out from

. >> you mentioned yukio edano and his latest news conference, and he said their credentials have not been affected. how can that be when some manufacturers have all said that their manufacturing will be affected? >> that is a good question. i do not know the ins and outs. what everyone is saying is that the supply lines will have been affected by this, and a lot of the microchips that are going to your ipad or my iphone, they come through here. this will have a knock-on effect. but it also depends on who was in the earthquake zone. i am not sure how many microchip plants have been affected. the last time i checked, the nikkei was down. this country is twice as indebted as the united states, and beyond the reconstruction efforts, putting money back into the economy, at the end of today, japan has been struggling ever since it's a bubble burst in 1990 and will continue to do so -- ever since its bubble burst. >> this is bbc news. still ahead, but anti--- still ahead, anti-gaddafi protesters. a no-fly zone. the man widely recognized as having won the ivory coast election is trying to av

we're now listening in on the news conference of japan's chief cabinet secretary yukio edano. 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

. >> chief cabinet secretary yukio edano says the government considers the damage to be extensive. >> we've received information that a great number of people are dead. as for tsunamis, there's a chance that waves bigger than the first could hit over the coming day or so. >> the minister of defense prepared about 8,000 self-defense force troops for miyagi prefecture and other disaster areas. the ministry of foreign affairs has begun preparations to accept foreign assistance. >>> the massive earthquake has also damaged two nuclear power plants in fukushima prefecture. air has been released from the plants to ease the mounting pressure, but high levels of radioactivity have forced the fukushima number one plant to suspend the release. radiation at the fukushima number one plant rose to a level 1,000 times higher than unusual the central control room at one point. the rising pressure poses a threat to the containment vessel. japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency says the operation to release air from the reactor bess g s began before 9:00 a.m. the valves have to be operated by han

are not improving in a straight line and we've expected twists and turns chief cabinet secretary yukio edano says. the contaminated water is one of them. safety officials had planned to puferp the contaminated water to holding tanks inside the reactor but they are full. and until the radioactive water is removed from the plant's floor, workers cannot run new electric cables that are essential to restarting the reactor's cooling system. meanwhile, the human and economic cost of the twin disasters that sparked the nuclear catastrophe continues to climb. the price tag for the disaster now tops $300 billion. making it the world's most expensive natural disaster. lucy craft, cbs news, tokyo. >> still ahead on tonight's "cbs evening news", an inside look at america's nuclear crisis, 323 years later. -- 32 years later. >> for millions of americans the nuclear crisis in japan has brought back harrowing memories of this country's worst nuclear accident. three mile island. it began 32 years ago tomorrow. elaine quijano looks back. >> reporter: at 4 a.m. on a wednesday water pumps for the cooling syste

. >> there is still a possibility of explosion, says cabinet secretary yukio edano. while the picture painted is frightening, for many on the ground this blunt talk is a welcome break from the often conflicting information put out by agencies since the quake hit. they also seem to have no clear idea of how many people have been affected by the radiation, while reassuring people the radiation is not life threatening. >> "we were frightened, but the radiation turned out to be nothing to worry about," says this father visiting an evacuation center. others are more nervous. while the nuclear disaster dominates headlines, they'll do anything to get away. three days have passed since the nuclear plant was first damaged in the quake. its decline has led to growing anxiety, culminating in a three- hour wait to leave the area. while nearly 200,000 people have been evacuated from the area, some are staying put for now. celia hatton, fukushima, japan. >> mitchell: one big worry for officials: water levels have dropped so much inside two of the reactors as that parts of the uran

because the chief cabinet secretary yukio edano will talk about that in detail following my message so. ladies and gentlemen there is one thing that i would like to ask for your understanding and also to make a request including this plant many power plants have been damaged and tokyo. electrical power plant. and other power plants are in short supply of the power especially in talk and so the government. has instructed. the atmos over to those two power companies to get a supply from other power companies and also we like to asked the industries as well as ordinary households to save energy and power however we do not know when those. facilities will be restored so in this situation we could fall into shortage of power and if this situation remains like this we could fall into power outage in a wide area. and sudden power failure could devastate. the lives of people as well as to the industrial activities and this is something that we must avoid therefore. i instructed talk your electric power company. to. make a premeditated outage in tokyo area. and the details will be explained by

not improving in a straight line, and these expected twists and turns" chief cab yet secretary yukio edano says. and contaminated water is one of them. safety officials had planned to pump the contaminated water to holding tanks inside the reactor, but they are full. and until the radioactive water is removed from the plant's floor, workers cannot run new electric cables that are essential to restarting the reactor's cooling system. meanwhile, the human and economic cost of the twin disasters that sparked the nuclear catastrophe continues to climb. the price tag for the disaster now tops $300 billion. making it the world's most expensive natural disaster. lucy craft, cbs news, tokyo. >>> health officials say radioactive iodine 131, most likely from the fukushima power plant, has been discovered in one sample of massachusetts rain water. it's in very low concentrations. officials say it poses no public health risk. >> we want to emphasize that the sampling results indicate no risk to the state drinking water supply. the drinking water supply in massachusetts is unaffected by this short-term

explosion happened we've just got confirmation from a japanese cabinet chief cabinet secretary yukio edano that that was indeed an explosion that we've seen pictures of about there were it was a cloud of smoke coming out of the reactor one of the walls collapsed the roof recently collapsed in the last hour there as well and the major concern is their release of radioactive particles into the area because we don't know yet what the cause of the explosion was there but it's believed to be a problem with the cooling system and if that's not working and the coolant japanese media are saying that the temperature of the coolant fluid was over one hundred degrees and what happens there is if that's not working the reactor actually starts to melt and then we get what's known as a nuclear meltdown the major consequences there are there to make too much exposure to radiation poisoning is trance and. the government has in mind the chief cabinet secretary is saying that with the evacuations they are considering quarantining and attentional obviously treatment but they'll have to assess that when they

"this will not be the same situation at as chernobyl" explains the chief cabinet secretary yukio edano. authorities say radiation levels at the dai-ichi complex are under the legal limit but the u.s.s. "ronald reagan's" crew tells a sobering story. 17 were exposed to a month's worth of radiation during a one- hour search-and-rescue mission and had to undergo decontamination, though none were exposed to levels that would have made them sick. the entire carrier detected elevated radiation levels while stationed 100 miles away and since moved off to another area. before today's blast, those inside a 12-mile radius of the complex were told to stay indoors to avoid contamination, though few remained. instead, is it's a pass through point for many evacuees. this town located outside the evacuation zone has become home with a massive one-way traffic jam with all the vehicles headed north-- away from the faulty reactors. >> reporter: some are the option to escape, others have a duty to stay despite fears of a nuclear meltdown. japanese defenses for forces stationed in fukushima have been worke

and, so chief cabinet secretary yukio edano said we had progress, a little bit of progress today, buty much not out of the woods yet. so developments tomorrow will be critical. >> also, critical to this are the humanitarian efforts on the ground there, lucy. what are their status? >> well, the original efforts with the evacuees focussed on taking care of them, either in their towns or near, too, where they lived. now, because the infrastructure is so badly damaged, in the most hard-hit areas, which are miyagi and iwate, now the effort has shifted to getting those -- the evacuees out of their home states, their home prefectures, sending them anywhere in japan that will have them. putting them in public housing, private homes, hotel, inns, you name it. anywhere that they can be safe and warm and comfortable and have access to medical services and food supplies and all of that. so the effort has very much changed in the last few days. >> cbs news correspondent lucy craft. thank you. >>> and now let's get a check of this morning's other headlines. cbs news correspondent and "morning news"

but chief cabinet secretary yukio edano on saturday, a spokesman for the utility operator tokyo electric power says no one is sure where the radioactive water is coming from. but they haven't had a chance to check the structural integrity of the building since the quake. if there is a crack in the buildi over 100,000 residents in the outer ring of the nuclear danger zone to evacuate. japan says it's stepping up checks of radiation and sea water. despite official assurances that damage is limited to the zone around the plant, contamination fears could hurt japanese seafood exports. russ? >> lucy craft in the fukushima district of japan. we'll talk to you later. >>> professor matthew bunn, a nuclear expert at john f. kennedy school of government joins us from massachusetts. >> good morning. >> what is the biggest danger right now? what is going on at the plant? the instability there, or the radiation that has already got out and leaking to the food and water supply? >> well, we actually are making some progress. they've hooked up the electricity. they are switching over from the sea water