Page 26 - Treactor Core News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Facilities and that was reflecting damage to the fuel rods, there had not been any full meltdown of those facilities, so even after the blasts they kept up the effort to cool those facilities down to prevent further damage to the fuel rods, any further meltdown. with the type of damage that you are worried about that you're saying this lack of pressure might indicate, does that mean they will not be able to continue to cool this down? that they will not be able to essentially keep working on it to make it more safe? >> that's a good point, because if the containment is breached the way it has ...

Steam and hydrogen outside the metal reactor into the other one, and the hydrogen tends to explode, and that could have been what caused the breach. so there is no indication yet that that critical metal one was breached. but they are talking about the nuclear material inside melting, and it is so hot that it could potentially melt the metal. that's potentially. we don't know what's happened. every physicist is pointing out we are now in unchartered territories. we are in a situation that never happened with a nuclear reactor, except for three mile island which was contained with release of ra...

Based on what we know right now? >> we, i think we have to be honest and say no one can answer that question. i don't think the government knows. i don't think the utility knows. because you know, it all depends, the worst case scenario depends on this containment vessel. feet and feet of concrete with reinforced steel that is surrounding the reactor core. but it's been there for 40 plus years absorbing radiation. has it gotten brittle? has it changed? has it cracked? are there problems? no one knows the answer to that question. we don't want to test that. we don't want to test the proposition...

Trauma of the past four days and now waiting for news of loved ones. and on top of all that, this japan is racing against the clock to contain what could become a nuclear crisis. images like this have become all too familiar, the white smoke billowing over northeast japan after a second explosion at a nuclear plant in fukushima. that plant's third reactor has now shut down. as frightening as this nuclear development is, one expert says caution must be exercised when describing the situation in fukushima. james acton explains. >> chernobyl is a helpful comparison. that was an skplougs inside ...

Be fine but, you know, there's a lot of uncertainty here and we're not going to know for a little while. >> correct me, i flunked science, there had been releases yesterday, i think it was and said because of the way the wind was blowing said whatever was released went over the ocean. what was released? why were they doing those kind of controlled releases, if you can explain that to our viewers? >> sure. what happened is it's getting very hot inside that reactor core because they're not able to cool it down. the water inside there is getting boiled. as it boils, it turns to steam and vapor an...