all of the plants shutdown, and 111 of the pla the pla 1 all of the plants shutdown, and 111 of the pla 111 of the pla 11 of the plants shutdown. it is like putting a pan in the oven. you can turn the oven off, but if you go in to reach for the pan, it is still going to be hot. and the reactor core is still hot even though the plant is shutdown. so you have to cool it down so that the fuel inside of that plant doesn t melt. the problem is that theel cooing system, the initial cooling system broke down, and then the backup cooling system which was running on diesel fuel was flooded, and so it is not whether they have coolant or not, but electricity to pump the water into the plant to keep the plant at a regulated level. so was this with the way that the plant was designed or something that could not be controlled? well, all of the nuclear power plants have several layers of defense, and lots of backup systems, but this is a case in which the backup system has failed. now, we are not
barbara starr at the pentagon. and of course, we were discussing with barbara, the u.s. military s involvement and the fears of the nuclear power plant, and we are joined by jim walsh who is from newton, massachusetts, and he is a nuclear expert from m.i.t., and what is your fear if you have a fear right now do you have after hearing of this cooling tower issue in one of the plants, after hearing of a fire being put out, but a fire nonetheless in another plant. what are your fears? yeah, oh, i have two things that i am concerned about, but before i say that, let me extend my deepest sympathies to the people of japan. you have picked up international viewer ins the last half hour, so i can t tell them how sorry, i am about this. in terms of what is happening on the ground, it is thele cooing system that matters most. the fire is sort of incidental. this is how it works. even when the warning first came that there was an earthquake, all of the plants shutdown, and 111 of the pla 1