they considered forcing open some holes to release gas or radio activity out in order to prevent an explosion. but fortunately pressure did recede and they did not to force any openings. this is the reactor that s caused them the most trouble. it s got the most fuel rods, it s been heating up, fires all week long. they ve been spraying it with water for continuous days. that had some success saturday when it cooled down again, but, again, this reactor and the situation just kind of ebbs and flows on the day. there s one problem regarding electricity hook-up. they ve gotten lines through to reactors one and two. that means if the electric lines work, they might be able to pump water in with those into some of these reactors and not have to spray. that would be a good development, of course. they ll is check to see whether
we ve been reporting that some radioactive material at abnormally high levels has gotten into the milk and spinach supply. what officials are doing today are trying to reassure the public that although these are abnormally high levels of radiation in the milk and spinach, they re not so extremely high to pose a significant public health hazard at the moment. they re monitoring it very closely. they say that the levels of radio activity are far below the levels of concern where they would be concerned about a major health hazard, but, again, they probably will decide by monday whether to ban the shipment and consumption of milk, spinach, and possibly some other products. they re monitoring other products as well, richard. i hesitate to call it the clean-up operation. it s much more than that. but the sheer amount of work that is now being done, i assume it s just still overwhelming. but are they making any serious
outside the facility. now, of course there s been a lot of concern about how much radio activity is going up in the steam and smoke, and again, you know, it gets dispersed quite rapidly. i know there s a lot of concerns and fears, but so far the radiation readings have not been worrisome. now, you point out in detail three different deep of rad agyags, and the gamma radiation is the real worry. why is that? isms gamma radiation is basically just like x rays. and the nuclear cores, they re basically like x-ray machines that never turn off. they re constantly generating gamma-rays. they re very penetrating. they can penetrate through radiation suits, so you need to be shielded with lead or concrete. the workers trying to hook up cooling to the facility, they
going to throw a nuclear reactor at you, it s not realistic. stop. it s not going to happen. here we are dealing with it. reporter: there are growing complaints that aid isn t getting through fast enough to the worst affected areas such as this one. though for their part u.s. officials are pledging to do everything they can to help in an operation now officially called operation friend. ian williams, thank you much. the situation at the damaged nuclear power plant is improving but there are concerns. officials say they might have to release some radioactive steam from reactor three. they have yet to do it so far saying the pressure has been able to be contained. how dangerous potentially would that be? it will have radio activity in it and it could contaminate more food and water.
operation is being seen as the closest cooperation with japan since the end of the war. ian williams, nbc news. officials called out plans to re vent radioactive gas from number three. let s bring in president for energy and research. thank you for joining us. thank you for asking me. we have five and six stabilized. what does this mean to the overall picture? i think the overall picture is much improved for now and so there s a fair amount of good news. they are not venting radio activity now from any of the reactors. in the spent fuel pools where there s a lot of auto activity which have been the focus of a lot of the problems, they have been able to establish water and the boiling in spent fuel pools