Page 2 - Ground Motion News Today

its a probably thats never been wassed by a quake in this country until now. first responders may be getting reasons. stand by for dr. sanjay gupta and details of a new medical study. im westbound westboun im wolf blitzer. youre in "the situation room." >> how did their political leaders do big things like reduce the debt if they butt heads over a scheduling speech. were learning more about the duty-up over the presidents make-or-break jobs speech this week, and how the date was finall...

Was -- didnt create many waves this time, in the next couple weeks or months, there may be ground motion that does create waves and then that will be a question, can they handle it when theyre pumping all this water around. probably -- its going to be hard. its going to be trouble. >> 7.1 in itself is a large wake. bill nye, thank you. >> thank you. coming up, stalemate in the desert sands of libya and a stalemate in the halls of congress. i hate to say it but many think prospects of a governm...

Broken, in fact -- >> its an entirely different building code. >> and that costs money. >> thats what makes it so a345iamaz amazing with the large wake they had last time. when we consider the structural rigidity of the reactors. they have been throwing in a lot of gallons. each gallon of water weighs eight pounds. can they handle this? >> apparently, but apparently theres a leak somewhere. the word handle it, i guess the answer would be kind of, sort of, up to a point. theyre cooling it off wit...

Requirements on the plant being able to withstand earthquakes that are historic to the area in which the plant is located. and then puts additional margin on that to make sure that that determination is conservative. the nuclear regulatory commission has indicated theyre going to look again at those standards and make sure if some additional requirements may need to be placed. but that plant is well maintained. there are stringent requirements on it. it has been considerably updated since it was...

Seriously. theyre working as best and as fast as they can to determine the situation. and most important to mitigate further risks. >> disasters tend to happen when things you dont expect come along. the japanese didnt expect an earthquake over 7.0. they didnt have reactors that could withstand that. they didnt expect a huge earthquake, 9.0 followed by a tsunami. what is it that the u.s. is not expecting? could our reactors on the west coast withstand a 9.0 right now followed by a tsunami? >> if...

Probability is so low were looking for a potential quake that would occur once every 7,000 to 10,000 years. and so youre allowing a huge span of time to allow for significant ground motion. >> what are they built for on the coast? >> again, it depends on the site of the reactor. let me give you an example. sometimes people translate this to scale of the richter scale. but its really an acceleration at the site. and, for example, it could be something like the canyon, i believe is something like ...

Depends on how -- now youre beginning to read body language and things of that nature. i think both the japanese officials and the united states officials are taking this very seriously. theyre working as best and as fast as they can to determine the situation. and most important to mitigate further risks. >> disasters tend to happen when things you dont expect come along. the japanese didnt expect an earthquake over 7.0. they didnt have reactors that could withstand that. they didnt expect a hu...

And then you design above that ground motion criteria. the ground motion criteria we use is something where the probability is so low were looking for a potential quake that would occur once every 7,000 to 10,000 years. and so youre allowing a huge span of time to allow for significant ground motion. >> what are they built for on the coast? >> again, it depends on the site of the reactor. let me give you an example. sometimes people translate this to scale of the richter scale. but its really an...

Going, its not a democratically-elected leadership and theyre going to keep building. other countries, perhaps south korea, which is right across the water from japan, other countries may want to take a pause here. so i think it will play out politically in different places. >> these japanese reactors currently in trouble, they were likely built with the notion of ground motion. but this was an 8.9 quake and it seems like anything, in would be difficult for anything to withstand that kind of vel...

Defeated their best efforts, and now they have a crisis. >> how about if we look at the state of nuclear reactors in america, of which we have 104 in total. lets look at the west coast, for instance. we have earthquakes there typically. what about a devastating earthquake or tsunami that is triggered there? are there legitimate concerns about their safety? >> well, the interesting point that simon winchester made just a few minutes ago on your program, he talked about the ring of fire and the fa...