. - my background with the us navy goes to 1952 when i was working with westinghouse, and westinghousead designed and manufactured the reactor for the first nuclear submarine, nautilus. and they needed bellows seal valves, and the bellows seal valves at that time were in non-existence, and when i got the inquiries, i didn't know what "bellow" meant. i looked in the czech-english vocabulary and found out it's a bellow. so i looked in an american list of manufacturers, i found four manufacturers, and i ordered a bellow catalogue and so on, and started to design a bellows seal globe valve. and within about six weeks after the decision, i had already a prototype, tested in our plant--first plant-- with the help of a very top engineer by the name of duplessis. and i went to... ...to pittsburgh, where the head office of westinghouse was, and i left it there, and explained the features, etc., and within about three months, i asked for quotations, and i quoted, and i got the order for bellows seal valves from westinghouse for the first nuclear submarine, nautilus. and then my first big order i

. >> reporter: jim ferland is a vice president at westinghouse, which is building a new generation oflear reactors that do not rely on emergency power during a so-called station blackout. if you're in a blackout situation, the water comes down and goes on in between the outside layer and the inner layer there. >> that's right. >> reporter: the ap-1000 reactor has a passive cooling system-- a reservoir of water at the top of the containment vessel-- designed to circulate for three days using only gravity and convection. >> we don't know the details of what occurred, but we think this design maybe could have prevented that. >> reporter: how will we know if this really will work in the real world? >> the real work is we're going to go over to sanmen to test this. this is what we do, is we do the design. >> reporter: startup test director bil meader is part of a team headed to the sanmen nuclear plant in china. it is the first ap-1000 nuclear plant and they plan to wring it out and bring it on line over the next few years. sanmen is slated to be the first but not the last of this generati

tokyo electric is not to be trusted nor their nor their partner which they called westinghouse but westinghouse is now just a brand name for toshiba and even. graduate and we don't come across as looking like we're hating on japan or something there is a correction go the other way to talk a little bit about how general electric has been contributing to the crisis and in japan at the moment. well in fact one of the reasons we invited tokyo electric to the us is that our own operators have such a terrible record and one of them being general electric we had three engineers who worked on the very plants the design of the very plants that are exploding now who said that the plants those reactors were missed designed to those are designed by g.e. won by to shiva both all those designs are faulty we know that in addition the two of us plants were designed and the emergency diesel generators designed in the us one designed in japan by the sheba again all everyone of the back of diesel generators which would have saved those plants from melting down every single one all thirteen generators. failed to

and for whatever reason, the westinghouse owned cbs station had hired the only black in our area, black man, named ben williams. and six months later they hired me, and so they had to black people in the state of california working on their channel, of all channels, and then and i took a responsibility there is here's a. because we knew that we had to do well. neither of us knew anything about television. but we both had faith that what we wanted to do was a good thing for our time and our place. and that was the beginning of a television career that has now spanned 43 years without a break, never a day without a job. and that's something i'm very proud of. [applause] >> so, this charmed life that came from nowhere from a dream, has taken me on journeys that i couldn't have imagined. i've had the opportunity to come south, to go to georgia, have my chance to do my march, half my opportunity to be spat upon straightaway in my face a cute little blonde gal that i asked a question of. i've had the opportunity to go to the white house. i had the opportunity to talk to presidents. i've had t

81,000. -- westinghouse ap 1000. it was given due consideration by the nrc staff colleagues? >> i believe that they were. >> the members of the independent advisor a committee for reactor safeguards? >> as part of the review, they did specifically receive a presentation. >> you and your commission colleagues? >> i do not want to speak for the actions of all my colleagues, but i person met with him and talk to him about his concerns. >> what happened after dr. ma made his presentation? he raised these concerns. what happened after that? >> 8 the adviser committee looked at this perspective and the king to their own conclusions. ultimately, no one disputes that the recommendations that he had would make the design safer. but we think that the design, as it is right now, would appear to meet our standards. but i would add that it was mr. ma who raised concerns with the previous iteration of the design. as a result of those concerns, the agency did indicate to westinghouse that significant changes would need to be made.

>> no, they have upgraded and developed some of the newer designs at westinghouse and ge are safer than earlier designs. that was a very early design. the newer reactors being designed now -- >> chris: but 23 of our react orors are mach 1. >> there have been upgrades and will continue to be if it warranted. >> chris: the nuclear regulatory commission called for a 50-mile evacuation zone around the reactor in japan. but in new york state more than 21 million americans live that close to the indian point plant that we are taking a look at right here which is just 34-miles from manhattan. new york's governor called for shutting down that plant. is he overreacting? >> well, i think again the evacuation plans of the indian point reactor will be looked at and studied in great detail. the indian point reactor is not in the situation like in japan but i think again we will be looking at whether those evacuation plans are adequate. >> chris: senator tortio, to an degree evacuation you can't do anything about it because new york city is where it is and the plant is where it is. is it safe to have

81,000. -- westinghouse ap 1000. it was given due consideration by the nrc staff colleagues? >> i believe that they were. >> the members of the independent advisor a committee for reactor safeguards? >> as part of the review, they did specifically receive a presentation. >> you and your commission colleagues? >> i do not want to speak for the actions of all my colleagues, but i person met with him and talk to him about his concerns. >> what happened after dr. ma made his presentation? he raised these concerns. what happened after that? >> 8 the adviser committee looked at this perspective and the king to their own conclusions. ultimately, no one disputes that the recommendations that he had would make the design safer. but we think that the design, as it is right now, would appear to meet our standards. but i would add that it was mr. ma who raised concerns with the previous iteration of the design. as a result of those concerns, the agency did indicate to westinghouse that significant changes would need to be made.

the main reactor manufacturers, the top two are general electric and westinghouse., we need to make clear that no one builds the kind of reactors that we're having the problems in japan with. that's an old reactor model but a g.e. model. g.e. has very up-to-date reactor models. it's based on the same technology, boiling water reactors. they have the safety upgrades and something we would see in a fourth generation nuclear power plant. host: ok. let's take a look at this piece in "the wall street journal" to see what happens when radiation is released in nuclear facility, what is released in a nuclear plume. unstable atoms gives up radiation which can cause damage to tissue and sometimes trigger cancer. it takes us through what the bylogically significant contaminants it harmful. they have this diagram here of the human problem. eye done 131 can harm the thyroid. cesium 17 can affect the entire body. strentium 90 tends to get deposited in the bone marrow. and plutonium 238. it can become airborne again and cause harm. it can target bones and bone marrow. these are th

the main reactor manufacturers, the top two are general electric and westinghouse. guest: well, we need to make clear that no one builds the kind of reactors that we're having the problems in japan with. that's an old reactor model but a g.e. model. g.e. has very up-to-date reactor models. it's based on the same technology, boiling water reactors. they have the safety upgrades and something we would see in a fourth generation nuclear power plant. host: ok. let's take a look at this piece in "the wall street journal" to see what happens when radiation is released in nuclear facility, what is released in a nuclear plume. unstable atoms gives up radiation which can cause damage to tissue and sometimes trigger cancer. it takes us through what the bylogically significant contaminants it harmful. they have this diagram here of the human problem. eye done 131 can harm the thyroid. cesium 17 can affect the entire body. strentium 90 tends to get deposited in the bone marrow. and plutonium 238. it can become airborne again and cause harm. it can target bones and bone marrow.