Fuel Rods Inside News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Appears to be an explosion and fire in unit 4. apparently the fuel is burning. this reactor was shut down prior to the earthquake, but they have a fuel pool, nuclear fuel pool and it's apparently on fire. >> brian: that's 4. we know there was problems at 1, 2, and 3. and there have been problems with more. >> steve: the big worry is a meltdown. when you've got the meltdown because then all that nuclear stuff melts out of the concrete and steel bubble and then goes to the containment floor and the worst case scenario is -- you can see right there -- you've got the fuel rods inside. they've got ...

Radius, and one late development this afternoon, the japan nuclear safety agency is saying the roof 6 the number 4 reactor in the plant is cracked. that number 4 reactor had spent fuel rods inside. if those are exposed to the air that could be big, big trouble. it's raising questions about the possibility of another devastating leak or explosion. remember, we have four different reactors with different problems. we've got fires, the cracked roof, the explosion in reactor number 2, and if all of them start having problems, we're going to have unfortunately a whole new level of problem in japan....

Casing. the casing protects them. outside of that, there is another what they call containment vessel. there's another layer of protection and then you have the building itself. but the fuel rods inside, that's the core of the reactor. when you hear people talking about a meltdown of the core, that's what they're talking about. now, they need to be able to keep the water pumped in there to keep these fuel rods cool so it doesn't disintegrate even further. now, if you get that further zint gra disintegration is it would not be allowed to go into the atmosphe atmosphere. cooling the rods is esse...

Latest updates on this topic from reliable sources.

You're doing a fantastic job. thank you for setting the scene for us there from tokyo. let's get to the nuclear side of this story. japanese officials say a group of fuel rods was exposed at the fukushima nuclear power plant this morning. nbc news chief science and health correspondent bob bazell had spoken earlier today about the impact. >> the fuel rods inside have been damaged. they melted some. but they haven't gone outside the containment vessel into the environment. there is some radiation going into the environment because of the water that they use to cool down the reactor gives off st...