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Probability is so low we're looking for a potential quake that would occur once every 7,000 to 10,000 years. and so you're allowing a huge span of time to allow for significant ground motion. >> what are they built for on the coast? >> again, it depends on the site of the reactor. let me give you an example. sometimes people translate this to scale of the richter scale. but it's really an acceleration at the site. and, for example, it could be something like the canyon, i believe is something like two-thirds of the acceleration, vertical acceleration due to gravity. in lay person's language, t...

Depends on how -- now you're beginning to read body language and things of that nature. i think both the japanese officials and the united states officials are taking this very seriously. they're working as best and as fast as they can to determine the situation. and most important to mitigate further risks. >> disasters tend to happen when things you don't expect come along. the japanese didn't expect an earthquake over 7.0. they didn't have reactors that could withstand that. they didn't expect a huge earthquake, 9.0 followed by a tsunami. what is it that the u.s. is not expecting? could our...

And then you design above that ground motion criteria. the ground motion criteria we use is something where the probability is so low we're looking for a potential quake that would occur once every 7,000 to 10,000 years. and so you're allowing a huge span of time to allow for significant ground motion. >> what are they built for on the coast? >> again, it depends on the site of the reactor. let me give you an example. sometimes people translate this to scale of the richter scale. but it's really an acceleration at the site. and, for example, it could be something like the canyon, i believe is ...

Going, it's not a democratically-elected leadership and they're going to keep building. other countries, perhaps south korea, which is right across the water from japan, other countries may want to take a pause here. so i think it will play out politically in different places. >> these japanese reactors currently in trouble, they were likely built with the notion of ground motion. but this was an 8.9 quake and it seems like anything, in would be difficult for anything to withstand that kind of velocity, that kind of power. >> i think that's right, fredricka. and when you look at the design spe...

Defeated their best efforts, and now they have a crisis. >> how about if we look at the state of nuclear reactors in america, of which we have 104 in total. let's look at the west coast, for instance. we have earthquakes there typically. what about a devastating earthquake or tsunami that is triggered there? are there legitimate concerns about their safety? >> well, the interesting point that simon winchester made just a few minutes ago on your program, he talked about the ring of fire and the fact that you could have a major event with the cascadias conduction zone. could you have an event on...