secrecy with chernobyl was probably a major factor in the downfall of the soviet union. but speaking as an engineer, i m proud to say a lot of u.s. navy personnel stepped up to the plate right after the three mile island accident and improved safety of the nuclear system in the united states. the design of that nuclear reactor at three mile island was much, much better than at chernobyl. we have 31 designed nuclear plants in the united states that are similar to the one over at fukushima right now, the one causing the great concern right now. do you think we have a better backup system than they do? they don t have a good one, because it was undermined by the tsunami. it affected the battery backup to the diesel system, none of it worked. they ended up putting in seawater, which is destroying their plant, as an extreme measure. how are we in that regard? in terms of nuclear diesel backup, battery backup, do we have all these backup systems? we do. and there are parts of the
of massive radio logical release you saw in chernobyl back in a couple of decades ago. one of the things that i think is interesting here in talking about this earlier is is this a result or do any of the people you are talking to have any idea whether this is the result of backup systems that are shut down systems that did not work or just something, you know, two huge disasters at the same time that no nuclear facility could withstand. what i heard over and over again, that the japanese are amongst those who are most vigilant about nuclear safety in that they did have systems in place. first the earthquake. shut down the plants. that was supposed to happen but it cut off the power into the plants. that meant the diesel engines which were the backup system for running the cooling on the reactor and were knocked out by the flooding of the tsunami. that s what they think happened. and then they went to these battery systems which as you know have been running low on juic
you heard a moment ago from janie, her husband was inside one of the crippled power plants. more details on how serious the problems are right you with jean me serve. what s the latest? reporter: reports are that at one plant there are elevated temperatures. at the other plant, radiation levels are up. but according to the kyoto news agency, eight times the normal level at a monitoring station outside the plant. 1,000 times above normal in a control room inside the plant. here s what happens. the plant shut down during the quake, but the power into the plant was also disrupted, and that shut down the systems which cool the reactor core, which remains hot even after the plant is shut down. they had a backup system. those were some diesel engines, but those were knocked out by the tsunami. they went to a battery system. that s what they re using now, but it is a stop-gap measure.
they had a backup system. those were some diesel engines, but those were knocked out by the tsunami. they went to a battery system. that s what they re using now, but those have limited life and it s very much a stop-gap measure. things are being monitored very close, anderson. how dangerous of a situation is this? well, that s a question of some debate. they re trying to get a better power supply to those plants. there are reports they re trying to bring in more batteries, trying to bring in diesel generators to get more water pumped onto that core to keep it cool. in the meantime, they have staged evacuations around one of the plants, a ten kilometer radius. tarnd other one, a three kilometer radius. and some reports that maybe the u.s. government was trying to do something to help, is that true? they re monitoring the situation, they ve offered to help. the energy secretary is a physicist and understands the situation and what needs to be done. but at this point, the japanes
radioactivity released in the atmosphere. we ve tried to curtail that procedure here in the united states. but if you have nowhere to go, that s what you re going to do. let me ask you about the backup systems. we understand that electrical power was lost to the power plant and, therefore, the coolant systems are not able to run. what are the backup system to run those that coolant system? well, it s a real dangerous thing to look power to reactors. of course, they had the backup systems are battery-related systems. when you go back down to that, you you re really on a thin margin. right. fortunately, the good news is like i said earlier, they did get the rods down into the reactors. so the odds of a meltdown are just about zero. however, if they can t get that steam bled off, they could have other problems there and more radioactivity released in the atmosphere. you re talking about steam being let out to let the pressure out of what is going on inside the core.