Page 2 - Storage Pools News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Meantime, "new york times" is reporting that up gentlemanen's government approved a ten-year extension for the oldest of six reactors at that power station. just a month before the big earthquake, despite safety warnings. nbc's bob bazzell joins me. what's the latest? >> it look likes they may have turned the corner in the battle to get that under control. yesterday seemed to be a bad day. one of the storage pools was very hot and the radiation readings was as high as they've been in the accident. but the radiation levels have come down, there's electricity to all the reactors, but it can't be...

Safely under control after the storage pools have cooled down. this is the japanese coast guard riding that wave. it was about three miles or so off the country, just after the 9.0 quake. robert bazzell is following -- i know we have the survivors and some great pictures of them being airlifted to safety. can you tell me if that news is getting out widespread and what the reaction is to that? >> reporter: well, it's certainly getting widespread. it's on japanese television all the time and in the newspapers. how much that's going to make people feel better after many thousands have died an...

Allegedly as a last resort. why is this possible solution considered a last option in this case? >> well, this -- we're not talking about nuclear reactors here. we're talking about the spent fuel storage pools. >> okay. >> i don't think they're considering the racketers to be covered but the spent pools, storage pools, this may be a last-ditch effort if they cannot maintain cooling of the pit. so they could fill it up with concrete, sand, bus but they have to be careful. you want to make sure that it's borated so you don't have a nuclear reaction by doing this. >> so these spent fuel rods, is ...

"ac 360" coming up 2 1/2 hours. you'll want to be with us for that. despite fire crews' efforts to spray tons of water on the krim'lled reactors, the japanese network nhk reports water levels are still very low at the storage pools. in addition to the radiation hazard efforts to stabilize the reactors are taking an emotional toll at workers on the plant. let's start there with cnn's chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta, also in tokyo. and sanjay, i cannot imagine, and again, we praise these heroes who are trying but i cannot imagine what it would have been like to have been in there, m...

Fuel into these dry casks and it advocates a site to permanently store nuclear waste. that was intended to happen at yucca mountain in nevada but the controversy around it has blocked it from becoming a storage site. to plants rely on the storage pools. john laneir is a scientist at brooke haven. >> normally because this is a passive system, you wouldn't expect much to happen here. but, of course, if you're looking at something like a terrorist attack, then you would want to have extra measures. >> he says after 9/11 they told utilities they must have an emergency back up plan to keep them fro...