Page 2 - Core Cooling News Today

And im certain -- and theres no doubt, dont get me wrong, by any stretch of the imagination, water and water management is the crisis right now. and they are going to have to figure out how to solve this problem. but you know, quite honestly, until they get the systems put back into service or reconstructed or whatever, this is not a one-off deal. thish of water and water management is going to plague them until they can get on long-term core cooling and get the liquid processing systems back in...

The helicopter operators, what they might be exposed to, you would never choose this as your first option. youre only doing this because things have gotten pretty bad. >> michael freelander, where does this -- whats the best case scenario how this gets resolved, or any scenario for how this gets resolved. >> yeah, as the previous guest mentioned earlier in the segment, the best case scenario is they get some sort of reliable power supply through the extended -- extensive system, the backup pumps...

Does this -- whats the best case scenario how this gets involved, or any scenario for how this gets resolved. >> yeah, as the previous guest mentioned earlier in the segment, the best case scenario is they get some sort of reliable power supply through the extended -- extensive system, the backup pumps and valves and heat exchangers, that they can cobble together at least one sustainable, reliable set of long-term core cooling. once they get the reactors in a situation where they are effectively...

The fuel rods in the core to the atmosphere. that means that that heat will not be taken away. there will be no core cooling there, and the fuel will be damaged because the metal around the fuel rods will be damaged. they can bubble, they can balloon, they can burst. then you will get fuel directly exposed to the atmosphere. the fuel will fall down into the core and you have got an onsets of a core meltdown. martha: thank you very much. well be following this throughout the morning. appreciate i...

Robert is a nuclear engineer based in chicago. he explains what went wrong. the reactors often are very easy to shut youp.. the biggest issue is removing what is called the kahii. it doesnt go immediately to zero power. it goes to 10%. that tapers off over the next day or two. and what is really critical is to maintain some amount of core cooling during that two-day period. and the problem weve seen here is with the loss of off-site power and the loss of their back up diesel generators. they hav...