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>> reporter: john, it is desperate times. i mean, i dont think we can be alarmist about this situation, but at the same time no one can underestimate the severity of it and i think the reason why things have changed overnight here is because up until, you know, this morning, the u.s. nuclear regulatory commission said japan is taking the right steps, in agreement with the way japan was handling it and have come out and as you have said have been downplaying the situation, havent been giving all ...

Eyes on japans nuclear reactors as workers struggle to cool fuel rods. after days of setbacks, a fire broke out earlier this morning at reactor number four soon after naoto kan addressed the nation and the world. >> translator: for reactor number one and reactor number three, hydrogen came out and caused a hydrogen explosion. weve also seen fire at reactor number four. radiation has spread from these reactors, and the reading of the levels seems very high. theres still a very high risk of furthe...

Them at this minute. the reactors at fukushima, were concerned about mainly two of them. the number 2 reactor and number 4 reactor. lets begin with number 2. the pressure there is said to be falling and radiation level rising. thats a sign, experts say, that the containment shell might be breached. on top of that, the fuel rods in number 2 are fully exposed. the pool that stores the rods is boiling. if it boils enough and evaporates, it means more radioactive material will be spewed into the air...

Are. and, again, those -- based on the reports that ive seen, those dose rates are at a low level. they are elevated. and so an event has occurred. im not trying to say that an event has not occurred. thats definitely true. if they have elevated radiation, they are recording that. that is a problem, and theyre having to manage that. however, the dose rates recorded do not support the conclusion that a complete meltdown has occurred. that is definitely out of the question from the dose rates that...

Big chunks were spilled out in a black plume of smoke and carried all over western and eastern europe, contaminating radioactive material all over a highly populated area in western and eastern europe. that has not happened in japan. the reactors have been shut down. there is this, you know, you do have to keep cooling the reactor cores. that is where the problems are stemming from. when they fail to do that and the fuel rods have been exposed to the air, that is when we have seen limited releas...

Reading, a very, very low-level reading of radiation. not enough to pose any direct risk. andrew? >> stan, i want to come back to the explosion in the reactor, which may or may not have affected the containment vessel, which houses the reactor core. when will we know whether that containment vessel has been compromised in a significant way if at all? >> reporter: yeah. it really comes down to when they can get in and inspect. you know, theres been a lot of talk in recent days about the fuel rods...

>> reporter: nbc crews left northeast japan. when they arrived in tokyo, they were scanned with a geiger counter. everything was okay except their shoes. >> thats a bad thing. >> reporter: it was a bad thing, but to put it in perspective, very, very minute levels of radioactive material. >> reporter: but from this perspective, its hard to imagine only minute levels of ratiq%=9 emanating from the crippled fukushima plant. you can see smoke billowing from reactor three here. and satellite images ...

Concrete, its often mixed with a compound of borate, boron soaks up neutrons. -- is what they did at >> are they hoping they can do it? >> i am. everybody remember at chernobel, theres an area that you cant live in, because this contamination got all over the place. this radioactive material. and so as soon as you get leaks like this, and guys come out of there with apparently radiation sickness, something is cracked open, and something is leaking. and everybody knows this. and i -- i understand...

And water systems and that is known to cause harm and cause illness. we also know, of course, the potential risks of further heating there and the potential were hearing about this fuel rod that appears to have been melting down and that caused the cesium to seep out. they also had to release some steam, as well, to try again to aid the cooling of the plant and thats where more radioactive material was able to seep out through that steam. so yes, there is concern, becky. i mean, you dont put in ...