the nuclear crisis in japan, of course is far from over. let s check what s new this morning at the fukushima plant. water found in a tunnel at the number two reactor is reported to be at least 100,000 times normal levels for coolants inside a nuclear reactor. earlier, tokyo electric had said the level was 10 million times normal before the company corrected the number. there is concern about how to get rid of that radioactive water. officials say an apparatus to pump it all out is almost full as are several nearby storage tanks. and the temperature inside the number one reactor, that could signal that could be a sign nuclear fuel rods are overheating. to deal with the temperature spike they plan to adjust the flow of fresh water into the reactor core. got all that? cnn contributor jim walsh has been helping us make sense of the situation at the damaged plant. thanks for joining us. good to see you, carol. good to see you, too. first of all, explain to us this
save these people from having to do. what could that do to you? plutonium is a bad one because if you inhale or ingest it, it s a very powerful emitter of alpha radiation, very strong up close, right next to fitissu. if it gets on your clothes, it can t even penetrate your shirt or a piece of paper. but if it gets in your lung or in your stomach, it s extremely bad news. that was issue number one, the news today with the plutonium in the soil. the next issue here is you have the radioactive water, this highly, highly contaminated water now in some of these tunnels which i didn t even know there were tunnels. here are the four reactors, this is my best lay of the land, the turbines there, and then closest to the water is you have the underground tunnels. how is there water in the tunlds, cham? they re pumping water from the reactor to the turbines. as a matter of fact, they re circulating water to keep it circulating around the reactor core. to keep it cool. that s the most
meltdown or some problem with the core in reactor one. is that reversible? actually, there s only one way. it usually goes down. you can stop it and keep it, you know, at a steady level, but you don t recover that reactor core. whatever s melted has melted. and what they have to focus on now is not getting any more melting down. and what about these high elevations? the radiation, 100,000 times normal level at reactor two and 10,000 the normal level of radiation at reactor three? altogether, what does this indicate when it comes to their efforts to try to stop any more problems at those two reactors? well, that s unfortunately, a deteriorating situation. they re starting to get levels now 1,000 millisieverts an hour is one of them that have been reported that are dangerous, that are immediately dangerous to the life and health of individuals that are exposed to that. and fortunately, that s in the reactor area, not outside and not in tokyo or even in the area
it isn t there anymore. the entire city was washed away by the tsunami s waves in ten minutes. right now the temperature is rising inside reactor number one at the daiichi power station. engineers will attempt to cool it and stop further radiation from being released by increasing the flow of fresh water being pumped into the reactor core. that is all being planned for tomorrow when officials hope to switch over to a permanent power generator for the unit s cooling system. and at first they denied it but now nuclear safety officials in japan admit radioactive water is spilling from the daiichi power plant directly into the ocean. radiation levels also in the water are measuring as high as 1,800 times above normal. martin savidge is live in tokyo this morning. so in addition to those readings, we re also hearing the contamination in the sea is spreading. help us put this into perspective. how big of a concern is this right now? well, it s a very big concern, kiran.
meltdowns do you think are going on there. we have at least three in reactors, one, two and three. the fuel rods have been exposed to the air for days now, almost all the experts believe that they have at least partially melted down. this is similar to what happened in three mile island, an incident that happened 32 years ago today, this is the anniversary of three mile island but it is not get in the category of a chernoble where it blew up and spewed radioactive material into the upper atmosphere. it is bad and getting worse. gregg: talk to us about the water that is apparently leaking out. reporter: sure, here is the problem. in a desperate effort to cool the fuel rods, they did something that is not in any safety books. they moved fire trucks up on the beach and started pump sea water into the reactor, into the reactor core. fine, they did stabilize that last web. all that water is radioactive