>>>
good morning. breaking news.
japan
's nuclear crisis takes a dire turn. high levels of radiation spewing from the damaged
nuclear plant
following an explosion at a third reactor and a fire in a fourth. an official is calling it, quote, a very bad scenario as officials work to contain the risk today, tuesday, march 15,
2011
.
>>>
welcome to "today" on this tuesday morning. i'm
meredith vieira
.
>>
officials in
japan
are saying the radiation leaking from the crippled
nuclear power plant
is enough to impact
human health
.
>>
the big concern is the
number 2
reactor which exploded on monday sending more radiation into the air and then a fire at reactor 4 broke out. that one had been shut down for maintenance before the quake. all but 50 employees of the plant have been evacuated. in a nationally televised address
japan
's prime minister urged anyone living near the plant who had not already evacuated to seal themselves indoors and warned of the very
high risk
of more leaks.
>>
you hear the story and i think about the bravery of the 50 people who remain at the plant trying to cool the reactors at great personal risk.
>>
you wonder if they will have to leave as well and then what's going to happen?
>>
what's the outcome of that?
>>
in
tokyo
, slightly elevated radiation levels have been detected. we'll get the latest on an extremely tense situation straight ahead.
>>
there is a rare piece of good news. rescuers found a 70-year-old woman alive in her home four days after it was
swept away
by the tsunami.
ann curry
has details and a closer look at the toll this crisis is taking on people there. let's begin on this tuesday morning with the nuclear crisis.
robert bazell
, nbc's chief science correspondent, is in
tokyo
. good morning to you.
>> reporter:
good morning, matt. the nuclear crisis in
japan
has taken a turn for the worse. many people are saying it's ominous. that explosion in reactor
number 4
blew a hole in the cement containment facility allowing radiation to leak. the fire in the other reactor is allowing some radiation to get out. there are several reactors at the fukushima site. one of them in the cement dome. so far the metal cylinder has not broken but radiation is escaping.
>>
the danger seems to have significantly increased over the past couple of days.
>> reporter:
the
japanese prime minister
naoto kan
told people the radiation wasn't a widespread hazard and there was no need to evacuate beyond the 12 miles already established. those leaving have been checked for radiation. all the but the most essential personal nel have been told to leave the site. they offered public apologies.
>> translator:
this is a very poor, very bad scenario.
>> reporter:
satellite photos before and after show the damage. the fire that broke out today is at a reactor that was shut down for maintenance before the earthquake and was not releasing large quantities of radiation. experts agree the total amount of radiation isn't a significant
health hazard
beyond the area of the reactor.
>>
the amount of radiation that's likely to be released is going to be relatively small compared to an accident like chernobyl.
>> reporter:
it's not chernobyl for sure, but it's worse than mile islan d.
>>
bob, we mentioned that
tokyo
is 170 miles south of the
power plant
. i understand there is -- maybe chaos is too strong a word but there are a lot of people who are uneasy in
tokyo
trying to get out of the country any way they can. is that correc is that correct? are you seeing that?
>> reporter:
mostly foreigners are trying to get out. people aren't leaving
tokyo
who live here. no one is saying the radiation levels are posing a threat at this time. a lot of foreigners who have the option of getting out are looking at this and saying, well, it's not so bad right now. there has not been this catastrophic leak of radiation everybody fears but let's not wait around for that to happen. if it did nobody's getting out of anywhere. that's the mentality driving a lot of people to book flights and trains to get as far as from here as they can.
>>
robert bazell
in
tokyo
, thank you very much.
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