the navy s moved three ships away from the radioactive cloud. and while u.s. troops are not on the ground trying to cool the reactor, navy helicopters continue search and rescue missions around there. we were told we are ready to deal with anything we come into contact with. and that could be radiation. indeed, two helicopter troops have been exposed to elevated levels, low levels, of radiation. and so far the treatment is soap and water and potassium iodide pills. also told me the marines have spent more protection to the area, but could not elaborate. will they continue to provide whatever assistance japan needs and should they? talk back question today, are we asking too much of u.s. troops in japan? facebook.com/carolcnn, and i ll read your answers later in the hour. i m curious about what people
radioactive cloud. while u.s. troops are not on the ground trying to cool the leaking reactor, navy helicopters continue search and rescue missions around there. marine second lieutenant croft told me, we are ready and prepared to deal with anything we may come into contact with,that could be radiation. two u.s. helicopter crews have already been exposed to elevated, albeit, low levels of radiation. actually we just got word from the pentagon, it s now giving helicopter pilots potassium iodide pills before they get to japan, as a precautionary measure. talk back today. are we asking too much of u.s. troops in japan? send your comments to facebook.com/carolcnn. and i ll read some of your comments later on this hour. thank you, carol. what s ahead on the rundown. brian todd goes block to block with a search and rescue team in one devastated japanese town. u.s. debt may limit the u.s.
already 17 crew members came back with low levels after flying through a radioactive cloud. so what is being done to protect our men and women? sons and daughters? cnn pentagon correspondent chris lawrence has a closer look. reporter: we learned the u.s. military has given the japanese two water trucks in order to help cool down that malfunctioning reactor at the fukushima power plant. the japanese workers were trained on how to use those trucks at a u.s. military base near tokyo and then those workers have now taken the trucks out to the power plant. in addition, the u.s. military has now delivered more than 25 tons of food, water, blankets to survivors in the affected zone. they have also been running regular search and rescue missions right along the coastal areas. now could the u.s. military decline a mission it felt was too dangerous for its troops? of course. but as you look at the map, they have already started to take some precautions.
wind. it would be a dangerous, lethal radioactive cloud that would float up into the atmosphere. if the winds continue to blow from the west, great. no harm done except at the site itself. if the winds blew steadily from the north and then worse case you get precipitation rain or snow that pulls it out of the sky and drops it to the ground you have a situation where the health consequences would be worse than chernobyl. wow. worse than chernobyl. at fukushima, how long would the radiation stay there in that surrounding area? a lot of that radioactive material will last for hundreds of years. i don t know how much contamination there is on the ground and whether decontamination would be possible. some of the radio isotopes have extremely long half lives.
and there is an explosion, which is happened at a couple of those reactor site and then that radioactive cloud is then disbursed into the air. the temperature inside of this can go to nearly 2,000 degrees fahrenheit, enough to melt the fuel rods. the big question today is, again, whether or not the enclosures will hold and whether they will be able to continue getting cool water in there to eventually get these fuel rods cooled down sufficiently and then getting rid of the risk. all right. as we continue to ask and get answers, one by one to these questions about the plant, there is also the concern about radiation exposure. we want to bring in jam walsh, a cnn contributor and a research associate at the massachusetts, institute of technology. jim, just from what we have seen here now, you got four reactors at this plant with some level of damage or problem. is there any hope that the worst we have seen now and now from here on out, they are going to