Page 2 - Operating Reactors News Today

Operating those facilities today. but i think as james said, that concern stretches really in many ways more to the operating reactors that are scattered throughout the country. right now, theyve shut down, i believe, six of their reactors because, quite frankly, they dont need the electricity, but those reactors are critical infrastructure in ukraine, both because they supply more than half of the electricity or about half of the electricity in the country and because if those reactors were dam...

Would even be military action around the site because this is a -- its a radiation waste zone, so that certainly raised, in my mind, the concerns, if there were to be any type of efforts to try and take over the actual operating reactors, and those reactors certainly pose much more of a significant potential for radiation releases, which given that some of those are more centrally located in ukraine, could impact ukraine more than they would immediately the neighboring countries. >> okay. i unde...

Lose the ability to control the reaction in the reactor, you would get an uncontrolled nuclear reaction that would result in a meltdown and an explosion like you saw in chernobyl. 0n the other hand, the three reactors that are already shut down, and if reports are accurate, they are shutting down the other operating reactors now, you have taken the fuel rods out and put them in cooling ponds, and put them in cooling ponds, and that designed to keep these very, very hot, very radioactive fuel fro...

Around the reactor, would cut off electricity, would cut off the plumbing. if any of those things would happen, you would lose the ability to control the reaction in the reactor, you would get an uncontrolled nuclear reaction that would result in a meltdown and an explosion like you saw in chernobyl. on the other hand, the three reactors that are already shut down, and if reports are accurate, they are shutting down the other operating reactors now, youve taken the fuel rods out and youve put th...

There are 104 operating reactors, theyre scattered across 65 plants in 31 different states. if you take a look at this map, this gives you a better idea of exactly where this 63 thousand tons of spent fuel, the darker the color of the state, the more radioactive waste that state has, according to the nrc. again, were talking about 63,000 tons of spent fuel. if you take a look, with the telestrator working, illinois is the state with most, 776 tons. coming in second place is pennsylvania. as we k...

Effective? >> those are desperate measures. they need to have off-site electrical power to that plant. they need to make sure they get the primary cool atlanta systems back in operation in all four of the affected reactors. that is the most effective means to try to get this plant stabilized. jenna: the company that owns the plant says by the end of this weekend power to the reactor should they say be back and working, but that is eight, nine days into this crisis? is it too late to make a diffe...

This case. it was built to withstand an 8.2 quake. this is a 9.0. the tsunami was the bigger part of the problem. would you agree this is not the time to be debating its safety considering its track record has been good, considering in spite of how disastrous this has been? >> sure. the track record has been good that doesnt mean we shouldnt have a prudent debate in this country to make sure that the tens of millions of american citizens that live in close proximity to the 104 operating reactors...

To the other reactors? >> no. each one of the spent fuel pools is operating independently but the main impact of a big fire at number 4 would be creating an environment where no workers could be present. >> all right. if there are no workers present what would happen at the other reactors? >> oh, we have to think about the three operating reactors that need to have the coolant supplied at a steady rate over a period of more days and more weeks. i am sure that will require on-site personnel. to a...

The operating reactors automatically shut down, but there were problems in the cooling systems. in one of the cooling systems, number one, there was a problem. and in number three, another problem. so because these reactors failed, they went into what was called partial meltdown. not enough electricity to continue to run the cooling system. so scientists and technicians have begun to try to control by dumping the sea water. this is the sea water in this area into it. the concern, of course, is r...