Nuclear Fuel Reactors News Today

Cnn crews are in place. stan grant, sonja gu-- sanjay gupta will talk about the radiation and threat it poses to the public. and jill dougherty at the white house with new efforts to get america out of harms way. lets begin with you, stan. the water drops seem like a last-ditch effort to cool the reactor to prevent a meltdown. but i dont know, it just seems more like an act of desperation. >> reporter: they are trying everything they can. theres no doubted about thatment you know, theyve tried s...

>> what do i mean by that? im concerned that the radiation levels are rising to a point where they cannot get workers close enough to be able to reduce that radiation. and if the workers cant get there to get enough water on that nuclear waste pond, cant get enough water in the nuclear fuel reactors, then the radiation will continue to increase which means the workers have to pull back. over and over again this cycle repeats itself. if that culminates, that means the workers wont have any access...

Have actually seen posted or heard from her. >> so you know she was okay after the earthquake, but you have not heard from her since the tsunami. >> thats correct. >> were following a lot of developments in the next hour of the cnn "newsroom." stan grant is live in tokyo with the latest. >> reporter: dropping water from the sky and the back of water trucks on the ground to cool nuclear reactors, while at the same time the united states and japan are disagreeing over the extent of the radiation r...

Stable. the stroutrouble is with two, t and four, especially three and four. dangerous material is seeping out, in the event of a full-blown meltdown. in four, the problem is a pool of water. the fear is that the water is actually evaporating and its exposing spent fuel rods, very dangerously. again, the risk of pumping more radiation into the air. according to the nuclear safety agency, the radiation level has been dropping. at the gate it was less than the rate of some x-rays you may have. the...

About it going forward. thats the dilemma japanese officials face right now. >> and theyre still working on reactor number three right now. walsh also says if the reactors can be cooled and theres no significant release of radiation, the damage can be contained to just economic loss. he says crews could pour concrete into the reactors, entomb the fueled rods, and render them virtually harmless. foreign residents in japan need permission to return before they leave the country. today more than ...

Hydrogen explosions. the problem spreads not only from reactors one, two, three, and four, but also now begin to involve reactors five and six where there is also a nuclear waste stored and then we get into the cycle that we talked about earlier where it gets so radioactive they have to withdrawal the workers and then, at that point, youre crossing your fingers and hoping things work out for the best. >> i hope it doesnt reach that point. they are sure trying. jim walsh, many things. libyan st...

Maybe the first time this week, i woke up, i turned on the computer and there wasnt some really big news story that was different and worse. so thats been a tough way to live your week this past week. certainly tougher for the people of japan. i am concerned that were sort of in a fundamental dynamic that is going have to be changed. what do i mean by that? im concerned that the radiation levels are rising to a point where they cannot get workers close enough to reduce that radiation and if the ...