detected in his body. he is the first person to die at the plant since it was damaged by earthquake and tsunami in march. the disaster touching off the world s second worst nuclear accident. the nuclear crisis has sparked features nuclear disaster here at home. this is one focus of that home. new york s indian point power plant located about 30 miles north of manhattan. low lawmakers and officials have within keeping an eye on this fittings long before the crisis at fukushima. plant operators trying to ensure an increasingly nervous public that what happened in japan cannot possibly happen here. here is laura ingle. at the control room similarity at indian point nuclear power plant in buchanan, new york. operators prepare for the worst. they are trained on very extreme scenarios in the likely event they do occur, they are ready. inside the containment dome at the bottom is the reactor that holds the fuel that
spill reached the fragile louisiana marshlands. scientists estimated it became the worst spill in u.s. history. july 15th, a containment dome finally stopped the ruptured well. it had spewed oil into the gulf for 87 days. this week, we are focusing on the problems that still haunt the region and the anger that still is in the area. rob marciano was a big part of our coverage that won a peabody award. hi, rob. reporter: it has been quite a year to say the least. these people that were affected by this spill, the people that make their living on the gulf of mexico went from not being able to fish to going to work and cleaning up the oil and being able to fish and not doing it now. these fishermen a year later are frustrated on many levels.
to be taken out. if there is no water heat cannot be taken off and that leads to the heating of the rods, and it can be damaged so it is possible that the fuel rods get damaged and sense there is the roof of reactor seeing damage, this is more leakage of radiation out of the site. shepard: it is my understanding that the outer shell of the fuel rods could catch fire, doctor, and that because they are outside a containment dome this could be a very bad situation, indeed, is that everstating it. guest: it is a bad situation. that is for sure. and you are correct, if there is . (inaudible) if the fuel rods over heat they can have a reaction and this could lead to a similar explosion as we saw before on
future. among the hundreds of thousands of people exposed back then. here lies the lonely evidence, poisoned by people, reclaimed by the earth. some studies did show a higher rate of down syndromeรง and certain birth defects after the accident but that the rates returned to normal just a few years after. there is this broad range and debate over the lasting effects. one recent study showed that close to a million people may have died as a result. now in addition to this increase in tourism, we saw tourists going in today, ukraine is also trying to build this even bigger containment dome over the old reactor that will take a couple years to build and will cost around $1 billion. michelle kosinski reporting there. it will take years for japan to rebuild after this massive and devastating earthquake, but some residents already are beginning to pick up the pieces. plus, the world s busiest airport, the number one place you might want to avoid when traveling.
they re taking what i would consider to be desperate measures to get control. and one of those measures would be having to drop water into the pool using helicopters. so you do describe that as desperate measures. absolutely. then you have, sir, reactor number 2. we ve highlighted this because this is also the other huge concern because there are reports that the containment vessel within that surrounds the reactor is damaged. what are you hearing, and how bad, if that containment dome goes? well, there are two barriers that are designed to prevent the escape of the radioactivity in the core. there s the primary reactor vessel, which is a large steel container, that is the piece of equipment that s of grave concern right now.