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Monitors detected what may have been the melting of a fuel rod at the plant but there is no sign of dangerous radiation levels in the area. on cnn's "state of the union today," candy crowley asked japan's ambassador to the united states about efforts to cool the reactors. >> it is better to put in clear water, but we do not have enough supply of clear water there, so we are putting in sea water. >> it is not necessarily a sign that things are dire, it is a sign that you don't have the kind of water you'd like to use? >> we do not -- if there's clear water, it would be better for reactor itself...

We may be in a situation in japan that may have that consequence. if it did have that consequence, the result would be, of course, very devastating for the reactor itself, but the consequences for the people living in the vicinity would be very minor. >> so when we think about -- and again, i'm going to go back to chern only even though it's not a perfect analogy. i know when chernobyl groek down there were effects of that with radiation clouds in sweden. do you have any concern with what's happening right now with these nuclear power plants in japan that anything could come via cloud or in an...

The numbers 5 and 6 appear to be the least troubled. so those, apparently, are stable. the big problems are at reactors 3 and 4. smoke seen rising from number 3. they've evacuated all workers. they're not clear if it's come from the reactor itself, but the fear is, the pressure is rising that steam is coming out. remember, number 3 is the only one that uses plutonium. that is much more toxic than uranium. and the concern is, because the containment shell is damaged that you would have that radioactive material, very dangerous, spewing into the atmosphere. we're also learning that 10 days befor...

That was contained inside the reactor itself, inside the plant. outside the plant, those radiation levels have been very dramatic falling. and this is what the authority, the officials have had to say about that. not so long ago. >> translator: the level has come down to the level to cause no harm to human health according to the report i have received. >> now, as you're saying here, the levels have come down, and that's consistent with what we've seen in past days. you would see a spike in the radiation levels, and then it would rapidly come down as this material disperses and starts to break...

Normal is what they're saying. they revealed today that they found pools like the one that those workers stepped in a couple of days ago that sent two of them to the hospital, they found similar pools in basically reactors 1, 2 and 3 and all of them have higher than normal radiation levels which makes getting in there that much more difficult. they can't go in and spend a good deal of time in there because of the radiation. and as such, they can't figure out where this leak is coming from. they know that it's coming from some point in the reactor. either from the reactor itself, although they ...