NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: The clamp down after fears of a meltdown. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is getting ready to send inspectors to all 104 U.S. reactors that could lead to new rules and regulations and fairly like delays.

My next guest says it is good to be safe but we'll be sorry if we don't build more nuke plants. And he is doing just that. Aris Candris is the CEO of Westinghouse, among the bigger players in this arena is here exclusively. Sir, very good to have you. Thanks very much for coming.

ARIS CANDRIS, CEO, WESTINGHOUSE: Thank you, Neil.

CAVUTO: Are we overdoing it? Are we overreacting or risking doing that?

CANDRIS: In our business there is no such thing as overdoing it, quite frankly. We have a tremendous record of having safe operations in the U.S. plants in particular. And, it has been the result of basically going overboard in terms of criteria and in terms of regulation. So, we're almost at the stage of where there is no such thing as to save for us.

CAVUTO: All right. Now, we just had a map, I know you can't see it from where you are. Maybe you can. We showed where some of the, all the nuclear power reactors are. And a lot that are on the coast are the ones that get my attention, particularly on the California coast, the West Coast. And then you think of earthquakes out there. Tsunamis that would follow there. Would they, could they, suffer the same fate as these vulnerable Japanese reactors?

CANDRIS: Well, these plants are designed for worst possible earthquake and tsunami, the ones that are on the coast.

CAVUTO: Weren't the Japanese ones?

CANDRIS: Well, as it turned out the Japanese, when we get more information about that, Neil.

CAVUTO: Right.

CANDRIS: It looks like both the earthquake and the tsunami significantly surpassed the design basis for those units. And we'll have to obviously, there is an awful lot of Monday morning quarterback that is going to be taking place. We're going to find out exactly why that is down the road. But we're confident that for the U.S. plants both the tsunami and the earthquake limits that we have imposed are more than adequate with the safety factors we put on top of known geology.

CAVUTO: But you know what worries me though, Aris, is when I look at these developments, not only the overreaction. We've already seen what is happening in the Middle East. And we better rely on other power sources than those but, that we go full throttle the other way then.

Rather than just include nuclear in the mix. Now I'm hearing from politicians, not in my backyard. I won't approve another license renewal. I won't approve a new plant and here you're looking to do both. Are you worried?

CANDRIS: Well, I am an optimist, I have to admit that going in. But by the same token I have to tell you I'm not seeing that. I'm not seeing that in the U.S.. The statements from the Department of Energy, the White House, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, have been along the lines that obviously we're going to learn from this incident in Japan, but our plants are safe and we don't foresee change in policy.

CAVUTO: You know, no offense, certainly not to you, sir, but I heard that same response. We're not against traditional oil energy after the gulf, we're going to be looking at new licenses and new drilling permits and the like but we've seen only one, only one. And that was actually renewal of an old one. So they say one thing. They do another.

CANDRIS: Well, as I said it is very hard to predict what is going to happen. But the statements have come out so far have been quite common sense and based on facts. I expect them to continue down the road.

CAVUTO: I hope you're right about that. Could I ask you just a maybe a basic question here but a lot of the plants in question as I understand it, are the older ones, the ones built in the '70s, early '80s. I think these ones, largely GE operations are the ones vulnerable now in Japan. We're fine at the time for the technology and the environment and the limitations that we had. Not so now. So, when we bring plants up to code, do we bring them all up to code? Or are some grand fathered in? How does that work?

CANDRIS: No. Whenever we change the regulations or we change the baselines that we're working against, we go back and upgrade the existing units as well. And I'll have to take difference in something that you said, Neil, earlier. Just because those plants are older doesn't make them unsafe or less safe.

Ever since we started in this industry, as we learn more and in all technologies, as the technology holds you learn more, you change designs. Cars today are a lot safer than they were 30 and 50 years ago. Planes today are safer than they were 30 or 50 years ago.

CAVUTO: But still you would prefer to fly in a new plan and than an old plane, wouldn't you?

CANDRIS: If you look at some of the old planes that you get in and I do. A lot of them are manufactured in the 60's and '70s. And all the changes that have been imposed by the authorities that oversee them have been incorporated in those older designs and same thing holds true for nuclear power plants.

CAVUTO: All right. I hope you're right in all the above. Best of luck to you, Aris. Very nice having you.

CANDRIS: Thank you.

CAVUTO: Aris Candris. Well, he is heading south just as his poll numbers are heading south. We do the math. You decide.