Page 21 - Treactor Core News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> the fear is different at fukushima than the one we were considering at g.e. at fukushima, the cause of the accident they are fighting right now is the combined earthquake and the tsunami which wiped out all of the backup power systems on site. and so they have not been able to cool the reactor core the way the system was designed. >> let me ask you one other question, which may be something, it may not be something you looked at. we're seeing this potential fire, the fire which potentially is in the spent fuel rod pool, which is in essentially a less protected part of the reactor. why was i...

Three at fukushima -- the actual containment vessel itself, the vessel around the reactor core may have been breached. what is your knowledge of the situation on reactor number three? >> well, it is true that kind of white smoke or steam has been continuing. i guess even now there's some limited emission of steam. and -- at the same time, based on the radioactivity monitoring in the vicinity, it has been established. at 5:00 p.m., 1.6 millisieverts per power. >> does that say to you that the containment vessel has not been breached? can you tell us that? >> well, we will look into the

Being emitted. that water used to shield those gamma rays so essentially there's a gamma ray field on the site that's going to affect how well the people can do their work onsite. it wasn't bad enough to be in the suit and all that, now they're going to be exposed to a lot more gamma rays. it's compounded the problem a lot. >> compounded the problem a lot. sharon, you have visited nuclear facilities in japan. not this one but i think we can show people what a spent fuel rod pool looks like and it is on the top of the building there. on the top of the building. it's not like the main reactor co...

Reactor core's radioactivity released. >> it is understandable and consistent with the theory it did dry out because the fuel from the unit number 4 was most recently discharged, therefore was the hottest, and therefore the water would have boiled off more rapidly from this. but units 5 and 6 are coming along behind and will pose the same challenge. >> could the fuel rods, if there is a problem in which they can't get these resubmerged because of too much damage to 4, putting aside 5 and 6, could they moved to an intact spent fuel pool somewhere else? >> i don't think so. i don't see any way i...

Turns out they are firing that into that, if there are leaks, then what? >> then you have a problem. you can't prevent all of the volatile radioactivity from coming out and whatever fraction of it can go through the holes will go through the holes. >> and in terms of what we know about capacity about how many fuel rods would likely be inside that reactor, what sort of quantity are we talking about? >> i heard different numbers ranging from two to 15 reactor course. two to eight reactor cores' worth. >> so at worst scenario, eight reactor core's radioactivity released. >> it is understandable a...