à Reactors News Today

The world is watching as japans nuclear and humanitarian crisis continues to unfold. earlier today smoke could be seen billowing from the fukushima plant. countries neighboring japan are monitoring radiation levels of shipments from that country. but officials say they dont foresee any immediate effects of contamination. the united nations general assembly observed a moment of silence at its 65th session yesterday. members stood up to pay tribute to the people killed in the earthquake and tsun...

Uranium-filled pellet fuel rods, what do you do with your expired fuel? what do you do with that spent fuel rod? even after its been taken out incredibly hot. i mean thermally hot. you put these really hot, radioactive fuel rods under water. you put them in pools that in the case of these japanese reactors that were focusing on are pools that are about 40 feet by 45 feet. first of all, water just physically cools down the fuel rods. but the water also provides some shielding for their radioactiv...

Tourists ventured in, and some hardy residents moved back to farm. but officials here have determined that today the radiation level is low enough to bring people through on tours. to show them the sort of nuclear nowhere that japan is desperate to prevent. at least there, unlike chernobyl, huge protective barriers surround the reactors. >> we are all keeping our fingers crossed and hoping and praying that if things take an even greater turn to the worse, that these barriers will serve to preven...

Boil off the still water that is covering them. and if the rods boil off the water that is covering them and the water level drops and the rods get exposed to the air, what happens? same thing in an active reactor thats been shut down. its not good. >> lets bring in bob windrum. there has been some discussion about the fuel rods in japan and the exposure theyre getting to air. where do we stand? >> well, that is the big question right now. the iaea said this morning that they believe that the in...

Of radiation. that is not the case here. the japanese are not willing to do that. >> bob, thank you so much for joining us. appreciate the insight. rachel maddow will take a closer look at theç reactors tonight again, 9:00 eastern right here on msnbc. house speaker john boehners responding to the growing concern over nuclear energy sparked by the crisis in japan. and heres what he said on capitol hill just this morning. >> lets understand what safeguards, if any, additional safeguards need...

Whats the real risk here for japan? >> well, when -- if the fuel rods were exposed, it is not clear that there would be dire consequences at all. in fact, there have been studies by the department of energy that show that a complete uncovering of the fuel rods would not lead to their loss of integrity, at least in the spent fuel pool. if you did have massive melting and loss of water within the reactors themselves, it would melt down and still be contained within the vessel. so you could very mu...