it's hard to believe, but with each passing hour the situation in japan is becoming more dire and dangerous. and today, this. another explosion rips through a nuclear containment building and this, the safety system at a third nuclear reactor within the stricken fukushima plant breaking down. the reactor's fuel rods exposed for more than two hours. and officials seem unable to determine just how much water remains, as they seek to prevent a full-scale meltdown. beyond the dangers surrounding nuclear plant, there's widespread suffering from sendai to tokyo. millions are facing a mull tide of challenge. officials struggling to balance rescue efforts to reach survivors, distribute aid and bury the dead. a thousand bodies washed ashore in the last few hours. search and rescue teams from some 13 countries have now converged on what will be a lengthy and complex operation. frantically working to find any survivors from the upgraded 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami. in all, nearly 10,000 people have been rescued, while tens of thousands more are still awaiting help. survivors are scrambling for basic necessities. some are cqueueing for long lins around several blocks hoping to get food, to fill water tanks and replenish gas tanks. some 450,000 people have been relocated to evacuation centers in what the japanese government is calling their worst crisis since the second world war. and in a grim echo of the experience 65 years ago, the japanese government is now testing some evacuees for exposure to radiation. this morning, u.s. warships and planes assisting relief efforts were forced to temporarily move from japan's coast because of fears of toxic contamination. despite challenges, president obama says the u.s. will continue to assist the japanese in any way that it can. >> i've said directly to the prime minister of japan, prime minister kan, that the united states will continue to offer any assistance we can, as japan recovers from multiple disasters. and we will stand with the people of japan in the difficult day as head. >> officials now estimate that recovery costs will reach well beyond $170 billion. chris jansing joins us live from tokyo. good evening, chris. i'm afraid we have not been able to make contact with chris. we'll go back to her in a moment. i'm joined by jim miklaszewski, who is live at the pentagon. good afternoon, jim. >> reporter: good afternoon, marten. i understand that the air crew was around 100 miles northeast of sendai. do we know the level of raid krags that they encountered? >> reporter: according to u.s. navy officials, they don't have the exact numbers but they say it was very low. when the three helicopters and the 17 navy crew members were on that search and rescue mission out at sea, the radiation alarms aboard the helicopters went off, started changing, so the helicopters headed straight for the airicarrier ronald reagan. to decontaminate them, it was a simple soap and water scrubdown and then they were checked ago and the choppers and 17 crew members were found not to be contaminated. at same time, however, the ronald reagan encountered a radioactive plume, very low radiation. so they steered away from the plume itself and the -- there was apparently no serious threat to any of the crew members. what's fortunate here, of course, the u.s. navy, particularly, is very well-equipped and prepared to not only detect, but to respond to any kind of radiation threat. after all, there is a threat of a dirty bomb, even an unlikely threat of nuclear weapon at some point, but all of the aircraft carriers and submarines in the u.s. navy are radioactive so -- i mean they are not nuclear powered. i'm sorry. so they have their own set of precautions and reactions all set to go, and that's what happened here, martin. >> jim miklaszewski in the pentagon, thank you so much. back now to chris jansing, who is able to join us live from tokyo, where i believe you were on vacation, is that right, chris? >> reporter: martin, i was on vacation in asia. i was in the bay of thailand and got the word of what happened. it was really something to try to get to tokyo, as you know. the airport was shut down. and today, there's another scene there because there are foreigners, including many americans, who are trying to get out, frankly, many of them concerned about this growing nuclear threat. but it's clear that what's happening here is a humanitarian and economic, as well as a potential nuclear catastrophe. there's grave concern about those reactors, depending on who you talk to, various levels of concern on a scale of one to seven. some are calling it a four. others a five. others, a six. clearly this is a government that is scrambling to keep up with a growing, growing disaster, martin. >> chris, i imagine the scene must be overwhelming. hundreds of thousands of people evacuated, a thousand bodies washed up on shore. it must be horrendous. >> reporter: you could call it horrendous, heartbreaking. but words hardly seem to describe what is happening when you have an entire town just 17,000 people, a beautiful beach front community, and suddenly a wall of water, four story highs washes over it, it goes six miles inland, and 10,000 of those 17,000 people are missing. today, alone, rescue crews recovers 2,000 more bodies. the number 10,000 dead is being used. but privately and publicly a lot of officials fear it will go much higher than that, martin. >> you look pretty cold yourself out there. i understand a number of people have been made homeless are literally close to freezing. >> reporter: 550,000 is the official government number of the number of people displaced. but there are millions who don't have heat for a fourth night. imchecking my watch. it's 4:00 in the morning here in tokyo, it is cold but colder up north. there are serious concerns about weather coming in there, expecting snow on the northeast coast on wednesday. and so they are really scrambling to get aid to people. obviously power, a major concern. this country has lost about a quarter of its ability, because of the nuclear plants. but food, water, very scarce. they think they have 10% of what they need in these affected area. and you also have to think, martin, about these crews that are going in, americans, people from more than a dozen different countries, in the situation that they're facing as they're trying to help these folks that are in such dire circumstances. >> chris jansing, thank you for your hope? so far three separate explosions at fooushg nuclear power plant. this photo shows the damage to the. of buildings for units one and three, following the explosions. steam can be seen venting from the reactor building for unit three. what constitutes difference between a partial and a total meltdown? and can what -- what can be done once a process begins? i'm joins by two experts who will help explain these issues. frank vaughn hippel, nuclear s fi physicist and dr. ollie hanenan. frank, in simple terms, what is the difference between a partial and a total meltdown, and what are the consequences? >> well, the partial meltdown, the fuel is still not collapsed into the bottom the pressure vessel. so it's more coolable. and so -- but the -- if fuel is damaged the volatile radio activity, which can be boiled off at low temperatures, will already -- a lot of it will already be release flood the atmosphere, the containment. so the issue is how much gets out of the containment? >> the chernobyl disaster of 1986 didn't involve an earthquake, it was an accident. but are there similar anxieties of consequences that, of course, occurred then? >> well, so far the wind seem to be blowing offshore. i think that's why the carrier detected it. i don't think the release would be as large as the release from chernobyl because a lot of the material has been captured in the water inside the reactor and hopefully will stay there whereas in the case of chernobyl it's blown into the air because of the explosion. >> despite the high level of engineering and building codes, is it really ever safe to bill and operate a nuclear plant in an earthquake zone such as that in a place like sendai? >> well, i think this is the question which we need to rethink under the circumstances and see why we ended up with this current situation. i think what we need to do at this point of time, exactly what president obama said, provide all of the possible support to the government of japan and to avoid the meltdown. >> but you're saying there is a question with regard to why these nuclear power plants were built in an area subject to earthquakes. >> well, there are earthquakes everywhere, but this earthquake was also unpresented, let's be honest here. this is the biggest ever recorded earthquake which hit this place in japan. so we have to look at were there precautions in place? was there a design flaw? or, indeed, is this the right place for the reactor to be placed somewhere else? this is the most important thing to be studied in perhaps months and years to come. but now we need to concentrate to rectify the situation. >> as you look at what's happened, how long do you think it will be before the japanese authorities will be able to take control of the emission of nuclear product, particles, contamination? >> i think as frank said, how this thing will develop, i think we can avoid the worst. and then we see how the contamination is spread, whether winds are blowing and then to look what to do. the good thing what they have done so far they moves the people as a precautionary measure away from the vicinity of the reactor. >> frank, ollie's saying that he thinks that this situation is an emergency situation at the motel resolve it, yet every day things seem to be getting worse. on saturday we had one explosion. now we've had three. >> it's very tenuous. today you had the second explosion, i think it is and also the third reactor got into trouble of the recently shutdown ones. all three are in a very tenuous situation. >> frank, thank you for joining us. we'll look ahead whether the united states is prepared for such a threat itself. but when we come back, the situation on the ground and in the air could actually get worse for so many millions. an important health warning ahead. and desert flash point. rebel forces take a beating in libya. will their plea for a no-fly zone continue to fall on deaf ears? 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[ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. the scope of what could be a massive health crisis is just beginning to become clear in japan. the tide of a thousand bodies washed ashore today. crematoriums overwhelmed. the new peril of pow tension nuclear contamination after three explosions at fukushima power plan. nbc's bob winham visited the 1986 disaster somewhere joins me now. >> good afternoon. >> where does this event sit, by comparison with something like chernobyl and three mile island? >> there is such a wide disparity between chernobyl and three mile island. a million times more radiation relesions at chernobyl than three mile island. it's apples and oranges, in some ways. i think the critical thing is we do not have numbers on how much radiation was released in japan it would appear the number is down the scale towards three mile island than towards chernobyl. that could change, as the professor said, and because there's concerns of three reactors but still what you've got here is a very different type of reactor than chernobyl and a different type of situation. >> jim miklaszewski was saying earlier that the fleet that were in some measure contaminated were dealt with fairly easily. but it seems to me if that isn't an issue, what about the management problems with these plants? >> one of the things you have to look at here, professor vaughn hippel wrote about this in the new york times you have a management issue dealing with the engineering issue. what you have here is three reactors, all of which are in some various form of partial meltdown or concern. when you had three mile island, and even when you had chernobyl, it was one reactor that the international, national, and regional people could focus on. in this case not only dow you have three reactors but concerns about power plants you also have apr a tsunami, earthquake, cut communications, cut transportation. one of the big issues as this move as long is the environment, one is engineering but also, this is underappreciated the manage on the of the disaster. it is a real challenge for japanese authorities. >> are you saying that, even though hitter, too the emission of radiation is low, its management could actually increase in and exacerbate the problem? >> well, certainly, because people have to focus on crises as they evolve at each of the three reactors. over the weekend there was concern of two power plans one close to tokyo. now those concerns have been mitigated. but certainly the japanese nuclear authorities have to be monitoring all manner of problems, not just at these three reactors and at this plower plant, the fukushima, but other locations around the country. >> thanks again for your insight and your experience. when we come back -- the fighting in libya intensifies. and how safe are america's nuclear power plants? 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[ bat cracks ] that's a hit. one a day men's. but you can still refinance to a fixed rate as low as 4.75% at lendingtree.com. plus, get the best deal or we'll pay you $1,000. call lending tree at... today. i'm joined now by nbc's jim maceda with the latest from tripoli. gadhafi's forces not only pounding the rebels militarily but offering some kind of amnesty to those who give up their weapons. is this a sign the colonel is offering any means to defeat his opponents? >> reporter: hi, martin. well, i think that the colonel's doing what the colonel usually does. he uses what's at his disposal. i remember, i think it was richard haas who said you can't be the leader of the country like libya for 41 years and be a flake. this individual is extremely intelligent behind the often -- often called a cartoon character but uses what he needs to do what he needs to do to accomplish his goals. here he wants to crush an opposition. he does that with brutal force in the battlefield. but at the same time, he offers amnesty, he offers to sit down and negotiate. a recall a couple of weeks ago, i believe it was during an interview with the bbc and abc, he offered again to sit down with the people of zawiyah, the rebels in that rebel-held town at the time to the west of us here in tripoli, on the very day he launched one of the major quarries into the town with tanks to crush the rebellion. it's good psychological warfare for him to offer amnesty to rebels in benghazi and eastern part of the country because tonight they must be afraid of two things, of an onslaught heading their way in the next day or two, and also of reprisals that would happen after the war is over, a war which now looks like rebels are going to lose. if you take the regime at its word, it has said that every one of these individuals in the east and traitors, especially -- offering amnesty to traitors is a stretch. they have said they will treat traitor accordingly. if i were a rebel in benghazi, i'd be worried and not putting too much emphasis or truth in this latest attempt to win psychological points. back to you, martin. >> jim maceda in tripoli, thank you so much. we have new developments following the disaster in japan. another explosion has ripped through a nuclear containment building. officials are working feverishly to prevent a full-scale meltdown. meanwhile, nearly 10,000 people have been rescued while tens of thousands more are still awaiting help. search and rescue teams from at least 13 countries have joins