kilometers away rather than 30, that s big news. that s the head of the that s the top u.s. nuclear official saying that things are worse than japan has been saying, and that americans need to do something differently. that s going to put tremendous pressure on the japanese government. it points to the fact that the spent fuel problem is the overarching issue. it is generally dry. i will add by the way on the same topic, the iaea reported today that japan told them that at reactor three, which had previously just been a reactor problem, now reactor three is having spent fuel issue as well. neither are good. but i m more worried about the spent fuel pumps now than i was 24 hours ago.
the u.s. is urging americans to leave japan. we ll get an expert opinion on the levels of radiation coming from the plant, and dr. sanjay gupta will talk to us about the health risks of radiation exposure. [ male announcer ] america s beverage companies are working together to put more information right up front.
he didn t specify which one he was talking about at that point in time. the belief is at least according to the united states that the situation is extremely dire. let s bring in our jim walsh, from m.i.t., who has been helping us understand this. jim, you heard him just lay it out right there. the situation is extreme dire. that led for a call for americans to evacuate to a 50-mile radius. after he made the statements earlier today, while you ve been on air, i went to the nrc website. i looked at press released for the last three days. 24 hours ago the nrc totally supported japanese actions and would do the same thing. soon after that a u.s. team arrived on the ground this morning. as of this afternoon, they ve reversed the situation. clearly american officials arrived this morning, went to the plant, saw things were not what they expected, and then you re seeing this dramatic announcement tonight. as he talks about the spent
and the u.s. embassy is advising americans within 50 kilometers to evacuate or take shelter. wolf blitzer is traveling with hillary clinton and asked her about the crisis. is the united states urging citizens to get out of japan, as other countries are beginning to do, like france and maybe germany? well, first, wolf, the safety of american citizens is always our highest priority. we are litd rally monitoring this minute by minute. we have nuclear regulatory commission, department of energy experts on the ground in japan working with the japanese. and we are doing everything we can to help them try to get this triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, nuclear reactors under control. so if there is a necessity in our view to encourage that, we ll do so.
wolf. yeah, and based on all the conversations i ve had with the secretary of state and other u.s. officials, they are working right now to make sure that americans in japan, whether they re near this disaster zone or not so near, they want to try to protect them, not only the dip low matdic personnel and their american tourists or other american businessman as well as the tens of thousands of u.s. military personnel. there is a lot of stake obviously right now. we ll take a quick break. much more of the breaking news coverage coming up in the situation room. one, two, three, four you say flip it over and replay we ll make everything okay walk together the right way do, do, do, do castrol syntec has been reformulated for better performance under the hood. so we gave it a new name. castrol edge with syntec power technology. new name. better formula.