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through there. it steams, makes power, it condenses, makes water, the water cools the rod, the rods steam, and the water goes around and around and around. >> that's broken. >> that failed so there is no cooling from its normal cycle. they don't know how to cool it any better than what they're doing now, which is to take raw sea water and dump it on the rods. eventually the rods steam all that water away. >> sometimes too quickly. >> and steam is released out the top of the building. part of that has some radiation in it. it just does. that steam goes through many, many scrubbers, there's not a lot of radiation coming out, but it's happening. today the rods were dry. for a time, the pump that was pumping water into the reactor ran out of fuel, ran out of gas. so it couldn't pump any more water in. >> so it evaporated too quickly. >> and the rods were dry. it's like taking all the water out of your radiator in your car and driving down the highway. see how long your car will run without a radiator fluid in the
radiator. your engine will melt down. and the rods, the engines, began to melt down. they got water back in, started to work again, everything was cooled down. the second time, different problem. the valve that was supposed to let the steam out wouldn't open and so water was going in, steam was being made, but the valve wouldn't open. so the steam couldn't go out. they couldn't pump any more water in. eventually all the water that was in there was all steam and the rods were dry again. >> okay. so precarious situations in various ways with number one, number two and number three. what do you have to show me? i understand you have an aerial picture as well. >> we have some pictures of what the buildings should look like and also what the buildings do look like now. the building and the top and housing that's been blown off is not that significant, to be honest the explosions, although they look amazing and powerful, they are not nuclear explosions.
two separate reactors. is that as frightening as it sounds? explain to me, when we talk explosion, what really happens? >> well, the explosions were a result of the accumulation of hydrogen gas in the floors of the reactor building above the containment area. the hydrogen is a product of a nuclear reactor that's in trouble. when the fuel rods are not covered completely with water, they get very hot. there's steam in the environment. a combination of steam and the metal colliding with the fuel results in a chemical reaction that produces hydrogen. that hydrogen can't burn inside the containment, but they've had to vent the containments because they're getting so pressurized. that hydrogen is getting out into other parts of this building, and oxygen plus hydrogen makes for a very explosive mixture. >> it's oxygen and hydrogen. that's why we've seen some of