georgetown central. tim, you have one bit of a water and 11,500 tons of water, they are pouring into the ocean versus the higher toxic, more contaminated water coming out of the nuclear reactor number two is that worrisome at all that they are putting the water into the ocean? well, they are in a tough situation, because as you say, this highly radioactive water, they don t want to release unless they have to, so they are moving that to the containment facilities that are currently full, and moving what is in the containment facility which is a relatively low radioactive waste into the ocean. so it is about 10,000 tons as you said, and this is about the amount of water that is in five olympic swimming pools. so, you know, it is a considerable amount of water, but the immensity of the pacific ocean will dilute the water to harmless levels. well, that is my next question, if you need to allay fears of people in japan locally
that means it s all over. meltdown is coming. no. no. bring the, bring my m&m nuclear power plant in here. this is what it means. remember, i showed you this last night. here is the containment facility. here is the reactor in here and there is water in here. and what this means is the nuclear rods here, they re controlled by water because you want the water to boil and make steam. so now these rods aret. that s it. it just means the water has boiled down to expose the rods which it shouldn t have done. we knew that was going to happen. it sinks below the rods and can no longer effectively cool the rods. if they aren t cool, they will eventually melt so far, the exposure time hasn t been significant enough. that leads you to the next one. nuclear melt down! in our society, that means usually somebody has gone postal.
water. this is the core. the core is in this facility. containment facility. i have to take the m&ms out. the five-minute rule. anybody eats m&ms besides me, i break your hasn t. put in here, water is put on and this is sealed. where you get the steam. the pressure cooker. this is why i m not a nuclear scientist. no way i could close that. then they cover this all with concrete. then they build the outer shell. now, what has happened? first, because it was boiling and the pressure cooker has a steam coming out, which it s supposed. to they need to release pressure so the whole thing didn t explode. they relieve the pressure in here. when you saw this footage.
certainly a challenge, we are going to try tho do our best for you. jack spencer is a nuclear energy specialist at the heritage foundation. when you hear the headlines what does that mean to you? well it s not a good situation, that is for sure. but it isn t necessarily the catastrophe that i think many fear. look, what we need tho bear in n mind is that that containment facility is still intact, it hasn t been beached and that s what that is there for. all of the systems are in place to keep the nuclear power plant operating smoothly. there are layers are defense should that operation stop. and we see those layers of defense coming into play now. should there even be a full meltdown the containment structure should be adequate to hold that, and to prevent a significant release of radi radioactive material into the surrounding atmosphere. jenna: we are seeing a hydrogen
water. this is the core. the core is in this facility. containment facility. i have to take the m&ms out. the five-minute rule. anybody eats m&ms besides me, i break your hasn t. put in here, water is put on and this is sealed. where you get the steam. the pressure cooker. this is why i m not a nuclear scientist. no way i could close that. then they cover this all with concrete. then they build the outer shell. now, what has happened? first, because it was boiling and the pressure cooker has a steam coming out, which it s supposed. to they need to release pressure so the whole thing didn t explode. they relieve the pressure in here. when you saw this footage.