cannons as opposed to the helicopter drops. that means putting more personnel in harm s way. the u.s. military helped a japanese crew to learn how to use two water cannons the military had. they have donated those. but it is very difficult. they are trying to pour literally pour water on top of these fuel rods to get them covered to cool them down. but at great personal risk to themselves. i want to bring in dr. sanjay gupta. what is the greatest risk for people in the outlying areas? well, the greatest risk is that these radiation levels we ve been talking about start to go up. you try to cool down these rods, but that s a continuous process. are they going to continue shooting water at it? it doesn t make a lot of sense for the longer term. the radiation levels go up, if they get higher into the air and can disburse more as a result of that, then these evacuation
states, fairfax, virginia and los angeles, people are shuttled in shelters that don t have electricity and heat, sit a very difficult situation, and the focus, because there s so much understandable focus on this nuclear catastrophe, the situation up north, they re not paying as much attention to it as they are right now to the nuclear issue. on the nuclear front, a lot of what happens over the next 12 to 24 hours, and how many people are affected by it, will depend on what way the wind is blowing. that s what it comes down to. the united states has deployed a radiation detecting plane which i think we have pictures of. i want to show you. but they ve deployed that plane. it can apparently detect radioactive clouds in real time. it s been used to track the chernobyl disaster. chad, i guess the crucial question is, which way is the wind blowing right now?
company and government officials are stationed there. it seems like the information that the united states government has, that they said today in testimony before congress saying that spent fuel rods are completely exposed in one of the reactors and that there is no water covering them, that information has not been stated by the japanese government. why is that? well, it s a bit difficult for me to explain the perspective of the u.s. official. but let me just tell you that two hours ago, there was a telephone conversation between president obama and prime minister kan. and they discussed further cooperation. president obama extended his willingness to dispatch a larger number of nuclear experts, as well as reconstruction assistance, and the prime minister really appreciated it. well, i m glad he appreciated it, but my question is, if there
part, we re not detecting radioactivity. you want to know how much exposure have you had. a machine doesn t tell you how much exposure you ve had three days ago? no. think of it like a camera. you can hear it clicking off as it s giving readings here, which are all low. they re significantly low as compared to anything that would trigger an alarm. that measures alpha, beta and gamma rays. this is just measuring the air constantly around us, 13 microrads per hour, and that s, again, a very low number. professor, how does radiation spread over distance? if you are the u.s. government, the obama administration has said that americans should be no closer than 50 miles to this nuclear plant. that s a greater distance than the japanese government has been using over the last several days.
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