Page 42 - Hydrogen Explosion News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> reporter: absolutely concerned. this is unchartered territory not just the earthquake, but the nuclear reactors unable to control the heating inside the reactors. that's what's causing the concern now. let me bring you up to date about the explosion. we were talking about it for the last few hours. four people injured when the explosion happened at one of the plants, one of the reactors. we continue at the agency here about what caused that. let me give you indication now. we are talking an outside container, cement container. inside that, a steel casing protecting the nuclear fuel. what ha...

So people, i would presume, are getting out. it's certainly very quiet. and i can tell you that certainly coming into -- into the city, there was a long convoy of cars that were trying to get out. so not a lot of people obviously want to hang around, andrew. >> in sendai, the very heart where the disaster hit hardest on land. thanks very much for that. randi? as those rescue efforts continue, japanese officials are struggling to contain the situation at the nuclear plant. i want to speak to professor dallas. you've worked with japanese disaster management in the past. i want to ask you about...

For nonproliferation at carnegie bringing us expert analysis of what has happened at the nuclear plant. nice to see you in the studio. so, the latest we show that video of the nuclear plant one of the buildings which has collapsed we do not know if it was a nuclear explosion or a hydrogen-oxygen explosion. why does that difference matter? >> if it is hydrogen explosion they speculate this is the materials used to cool the water that is pumped into the react or and that means it is a secondary building. if it is one of the containment walls or structures, that is an indication there is severe s...

>> and the containment if the worst case scenario occurred in the plant and there was what we called a melt down, what is the effect? is the effect like an explosion? like a nuclear bomb going off or simply what gets released into the air around that area? >> no, it wouldn't be as dramatic. the scenario is this. the fuel in a normal nuclear reactor is in solid form in the form of rods. if that fuel overheats and melts, it essentially becomes like a lava, which would then flow down into the floor of the vessel that contains it, and it is hot enough at that point that it could eat a hole in the ...

Have not had confirmation from anyone of what is actually exploded and what that really means. people are speculating whether it is a hydrogen explosion or something else. we don't know. the issue at hand in the immediate sense is the integrity of the top of the building or the structures around the reactor at stake is the integrity of the vessel which is holding the fuel. we had a core accident in the united states in 1979 and a certain amount of the coremented but a great damage to the outside of the reactor was avoided because the core, the