i have a bad leg and my wife was behind me cheering me on saying, one, two, one, two. the voice stopped, and she was not there. she s dead. when i went back to get my stuff, she was lying down in the foyer. desperate scenes from japan. in the wake of the nuclear crisis, should the world reconsider nuclear power? joining subcommittee a physicist with the nuclear policy program of the carnegie endowment and john rich, for the world nuclear association and former u.s. ambassador to the international atomic energy agency. let me start with you, ambassador. today the energy secretary, stephen chu, said that u.s. reactors are designed to withstand hurricanes and tsunamis, but given geologies maximum predictions, is that
actually enough? piers, i fully agree that there are important lessons to be learned from what has happened at fukushima. but i think it s crucially important that we learn the right lessons. we already knew that every nuclear power reactor needs a reliable post shoutdown cooling system. what we learned from fukushima is we need to look at every single nuclear power plant in the world and ask the question of whether that cooling system is secure against any radical event. let me ask a difficult question on that. as things stands given your knowledge of the nuclear power plants in america, how many of them would you think are able to withstands an earthquake of a magnitude we saw in japan? let s remember that the reactors in japan were quite old. they had delivered reliable, clean energy to the japanese
pushed the plume way up into the air, and it entered the stratosphere. it went for miles and miles. in this case, there s less energy pushing out thematerial,e closer to the ground. they probably won t travel as far. you can detect radiation in excruciating equal quantities. we re going to see it on the west coast of the united states, in new york. it won t mean a lot because it will be in small quantities. i don t know how people will feel that. but essential at the s going to turn up everywhere in the long run. finally, how worried are you, how worried should americans be? and particularly, how worried should the japanese people be? about this plant? if you re within a few miles, you ought to be worried. that s why they ve moved people out. if you re more than a few miles, you do have potential to pick up significant dose, depending on the next few days, the direction of the wind. if you re farther away, you re likely to get some dose, but it may not be very much.
of graphite. there is no graphite used in this reactor. so the graphite at chernobyl pushed the plume way up into the air, and it entered the stratosphere. it went for miles and miles. in this case, there s less energy pushing out thematerial, so they re closer to the ground. they probably won t travel as far. you can detect radiation in excruciating equal quantities. we re going to see it on the west coast of the united states, in new york. it won t mean a lot because it will be in small quantities. i don t know how people will feel that. but essential at the s going to turn up everywhere in the long run. finally, how worried are you, how worried should americans be? and particularly, how worried should the japanese people be?
translator: the volume of water was so high, the car wouldn t move. my daughter and i tried our hardest to push her up to this hill. she was so heavy, i let go of her hand. i think this is the area where it happened. i am thinking that i might have closure if i keep sitting here. the human stories coming out of japan are simply heartbreaking. for most of us, surviving a tsunami is unimaginable, my next guest, though, has done exactly that. petra nemcova went through the 2004 tsunami in timberland and lived. out of that in thailand and lived. out of that she founded the happy heart foundation for children in disaster zones. petra, thank you very much for coming in. i can only imagine the kind of emotions you ve been through in the last few days, reliving the horror of what you went through. for people like most of white house have never been through a tsunami, what is the experience like when it happens? the experience is just horrifying because you feel so powerless with the amou