Page 5 - Coolant System News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Which direction that goes, and then you also have no water, you have no electricity. so it -- so is it better to evacuate and find people a place to live? >> exactly. i would evacuate as big a radius as i possibly could around that nuclear reactor right now. i think theus raid -- the radius is ten kilometers, 6.2 miles. they probably need to broaden that since they don't have a handle on the coolant system yet. then they need start working on places to distribute food and water. people are going to need that. they can't survive without water. they can go days and days and days without food. bu...

Radioactivity released in the atmosphere. we've tried to curtail that procedure here in the united states. but if you have nowhere to go, that's what you're going to do. >> let me ask you about the backup systems. we understand that electrical power was lost to the power plant and, therefore, the coolant systems are not able to run. what are the backup system to run those -- that coolant system? >> well, it's a real dangerous thing to look power to reactors. of course, they had -- the backup systems are battery-related systems. when you go back down to that, you -- you're really on a thin marg...

Terrible fear relating factor. but i believe that it's not likely that they're going to see health hazard creating levels of radioactivity, not with what we know right now. >> let me see if i understand completely what you've described as going on. when the earthquake happened, the nuclear reactor shut down, and the nuclear rods dropped into a core and fission stopped. heat continued to be radiated inside the containment area is, that right? >> yes. that's a good description. >> the problem is that electricity is running the coolant system and reducing that heat inside the containment area. am...

What's the latest you're hearing about the threat of a meltdown at those nuclear plants? >> reporter: well, that's right. i mean, if things weren't bad enough here in japan, seeing the full extent of the destruction today, we have a nuclear disaster in the making, if you believe some of the observers. there was an explosion today as a nuclear plant. we saw it, and it seemed really chilling on television. a plume of smoke appearing to engulf a nuclear power plant. now, the government is saying there is not a serious radiation leakage from that plant, but they have evacuated thousands of people ...

Miles northeast of tokyo. this is looking like ground zero for where this hit in japan. the reason they want people to get away from this area is the plant's coolant system for the reactor is apparently not functioning the way it should be. how serious is this is the question there. joining me on the phone is a senior associate for the nuclear power endowment. good to have you here this morning. what does any of that tell you about how much danger there is around this plant? >> the situation as i understand it is that the reactors are not being cooled as they should be. the reactors are cold. ...