good evening. earlier today you wrote this. earthquake epicenter 15 miles from north anna reactor, lost electricity, lessons to all nukes to check emergency power. what do you say to those who believe that the system worked today? the system worked to the extent to which the plant shut down. but there was a little glitch because one of the four diesel backup generators did not work at the plant. and that s something that we ve known about backup diesel generators across our countries. i issued a report back in may after the accident in japan. in it is a blistering scalding indictment of the lack of attention which the nuclear regulatory commission is paying to the safety protections which should be built into the operation of theses nuclear power plants. we are very fortunate that
right away, and it wasn t even noticed, wasn t noticed to the electrical grid. but the diesel backup generators were able to handle the problem and also during the 2003 blackout, they also had to turn those backup diesel generators to keep those nuclear rods cooled. that s the essential thing here. the pumps run by electricity, circulate water, keep the rods cool. otherwise they can evap wait the wat evaporate the water in the pools and there is potential for the melt ju meltdown like we have seen in japan. fortunately nothing like that has happened here. thank you, allan. president obama says he hopes that libya s opposition movement can regain momentum and force moammar gadhafi from power. but the president discussed the u.s. mission in libya in an interview with our spanish language network, cnn.
catastrophe did strike here, here s the key and here s the problem right now, in japan, is that when this happened they could not get power to cool the reactor and here, they say, it s all about shutting it down, and making sure you have the power to the facility to cool the reactor, they have diesel backup generators and battery backup generators in case the diesel goes down and if all that fails there is a gravity system in place, that cools the generator, bill, reactor, that is the big key, when you talk about a nuclear power plant, that is the size, 80,000 people, live within ten miles of the area. bill: interesting note, trace gallagher, thanks, southern california, fox news alert, the president talking about japan. president barack obama: i said directly to the prime minister of japan, prime minister kan, the u.s. will