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Death Toll Climbs In Japan; Some In Congress Call For Moratorium On Building Nuclear Power Plants in U.S.; Japanese Car Companies Having Trouble Unloading Finished Vehicles; Saving Detroit's School; The Sleep Study; Interview with Charles Barkley; Latest from Japan

Aired March 14, 2011 - 07:58   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to this AMERICAN MORNING. We are covering the disaster in Japan, the desperate search for survivors and now fears of a possible nuclear meltdown. A constant threat of more earthquakes, as well, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

And, welcome. It is Monday. It's March 14th. I'm Kiran Chetry.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans. A lot to cover for you this morning.

Japan and the world are struggling to contain two urgent situations right now -- a nuclear emergency and a humanitarian crisis. Right now a massive rescue operation is under way. Teams of people, search dogs, rescue equipment continue to arrive in the earthquake zone, even as we speak.

There's also been another explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, four days now, after the earthquake. Many of the residents are struggling to find basic necessities like food, water, fuel. At the few grocery stores that are still open, the shelves are bare. There are also long lines at the gas station.

There are also new images of the moment of impact. You can see a wall of water pouring over a ledge, taking with it cars, trucks, even boats.

CHETRY: Also, let's begin with Soledad O'Brien. She's live from the coastal city of Higashi-Matsushima. It is in northeast Japan. Police making a gruesome discovery there. Hundreds of bodies. And Soledad, the number of dead they're estimating - and of course, this was not surprising, although it is tragic that they expect it to climb a lot higher because you have hundreds of people still missing.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, you're absolutely right. And part of that is because the power of a tsunami in those pictures that you've seen, the power of the tsunami is truly breathtaking. It's just amazing. One of the things that we noticed as we were walking through this little fishing village, agricultural village, was exactly that. Some of the homes that have been built to earthquake, were modern standard, have really withstood the test of the tsunami and the earthquake very well and then right next door, something collapsed and floated away.

I want to show you a quick clip of a little tour we took right through this small town.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: The thing that never ceases to amaze you is really the power of a natural disaster like a tsunami. I mean, take a look at this. This building here, the white one, that's an apartment building and actually standing pretty well.

But look at this one here -- this is a house that's completely collapsed. And, remarkably, this house actually wasn't here before the tsunami hit. It came out of this big open space back here and actually just floated up with the force of the water. I mean, it's amazing.

Most of the people who live here are fishermen and rice farmers, some of them elderly. And now they say with the destruction, they really don't know what they're going to do, because as you can see, even a house like this inside, even though structurally, a real testament to the Japanese architecture with the mind to earthquakes -- structurally, it's held up very well. Inside, it's a complete and total loss.

So, the farmers that we have spoken to say that -- well, some are insured. They're not really sure at this point what exactly they can do. They said that when the earthquake happened, it was so severe on the hands and knees it was shaking so hard. Then an alarm went off, which is an indication that a tsunami was on the way. So, they high tailed it over to an elementary school and went up on the roof. Several hundred people, and then at that point, they basically are waiting, and within 30 minutes, the tsunami had come through.

And you can see -- and, John (ph), if you pan out that way, you can just see the complete and total loss that just goes on and on as far as you can see. What will happen to this community -- it's really unclear. But certainly for the homes here, most of it's just gone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Many of those people moved out of the elementary school. They've gone up to the third floor to get out of the way of the tsunami, moved about five kilometers away, roughly two miles away to move to an evacuation center where we saw them getting some food and water. There's no power there. There is also no heat there as well. So, it's not the greatest accommodations.

And there were some concerns there actually about whether there'd be enough food and water. But we saw some small deliveries being made earlier in the day. So, it sounds like they were getting some of that under control.

But it's very cold. I mean, it was really cold this afternoon. It was about 60 degrees. But, tonight, it's chilly. And that compromises things obviously for people who don't have heat and are in nearly challenging situations already as they try to figure out not only how to find their loved ones and rebuild, and pick up their lives tomorrow, but to step through and get through the night.

Back to you, guys.

CHETRY: And as you said -- the struggle for basic necessities and worrying about that obviously the top concern. But are there concerns as well about any problems with these nuclear facilities? I mean, has word trickled out that could be yet another disaster on top of what they have already dealt with?

O'BRIEN: You know, it wouldn't be word trickling out. We've seen a lot of people with radios. So, I think that there's really a good sense that people are getting information.

Here, the people we've spoken to -- no. There are so many day- to-day concerns about really what's happening right here, which is sort of the impact of the tsunami and the homes and trying to find their loved ones who've been potentially swept away. We haven't had a lot of conversations about the nuclear reactors and we're not really in the neighborhood for that -- that close yet. So, we intend to drive all the way north and maybe that story will change tomorrow.

CHETRY: All right. Soledad O'Brien for us this morning -- thanks.

ROMANS: In the wake of that earthquake, it's a race against clock right now. The U.S. search and rescue teams are on their way to some of the country's devastated regions like Sendai.

Brian Todd is with some teams at the Misawa Air Base getting ready to deploy and discover.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here, Christine, getting started here at Misawa Air Base for a push south to the city of Ofunato. We just found out, that's where we're going. I'll show you on the map here. This is Misawa Air Base where we are, pushing down south and back to the coast. Ofunato here, Sendai is down here. So, Ofunato, right on the coast, we're told, is very hard hit.

The Fairfax team just got its briefing. The L.A. team got its briefing. And over here is a group of British search and rescue personnel who we're told we're going to be working alongside as well.

The logistics here are just amazing. I mean, there's a lot of hurry up and wait and some frustration to that because there's just so many people and so much supply, so much equipment to get on the road and down there, but they are moving as fast as they can.

Everything is being loaded on pallets here. You can't see a lot of the equipments because it's in boxes. But you got jackhammers, heavy saws, listening equipment, K-9 teams are being ready to deploy. They are a big part of this operation.

Testing out one of the key pieces of equipment, this is the search camera going to be lowered into the rubble to try to identify victims.

Search specialist Tom Griffin is with me.

Tom, show us first how long this thing can extend.

TOM GRIFFIN, SEARCH SPECIALIST: It actually extends out about seven feet. We'll typically drill a hole or use an existing void hole to access a victim. The camera head has a light in it which we can adjust the brightness of. It also has a microphone and a speaker in it so we can speak to the victim and hear them.

It gives us the ability to do, actually visually view the person so that we know exactly where to start digging.

TODD: All of these tons of equipment have to be hauled down to Ofunato because these teams have to be self-contained for at least two weeks, probably no water, no electricity, other capabilities. They are going to be very, very limited down there. These teams have to be able to operate 24/7 once they get to this very hard hit city.

We're on the way there now. These guys are eager to get there to extract people from the rubble. They know they are racing against time at this point.

Kiran and Christine, back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: Brian Todd, thanks so much.

Well, Japan looks very different right now than it did just a few days ago. Much of the damage that followed the 8.9 magnitude quake is not from the quake itself from the massive tsunami that followed.

CNN's Rob Marciano is taking a look at the satellite imagery for a before and after. And the pictures are stunning.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They are. The pictures that we've been seeing on the ground certainly are mind blowing and these from above, similar to what we see in storm surge situations. But this type of surge has so much more power and mass behind it. And, obviously, you saw that in the pictures creating complete -- in some cases -- devastation.

This is Sendai from a high resolution satellite imagery from GIO. And this is Sendai after. Now, I should say, this is the eastern part of south Sendai, towards the coastline, right on the beaches here.

So, it's a big city. You go further inland and some areas are virtually untouched. So, keep that in mind, but he areas that got hit near the coastline are just completely wiped out.

Here is the airport just south of Sendai, and this is less than a kilometer away from the coastline itself. Before the tsunami and this is after. Even some runways continue to be flooded. They're having a slow little draining.

A lot of these low-lying areas will not -- are still draining because they basically have big puddles, including this farm land here in Natori, which is near Sendai. Just to the south, closer to the airport. The residential areas to the east getting hammered and wiped out, and then that farm land being completely flooded with not only saltwater and but likely a lot of other contaminants.

Ishinomaki up north, this is north of Sendai, kind of the northern fringe of the bowl there, the bay. This is the before this community, about 150,000 or 200,000 people in this part of the city itself, boom, wiped out there.

We've been talking about how much of a shift we've seen, the plates that shifted. You have the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate colliding and subducting. That's what made this tsunami happened, that subduction creates that lift in the ocean floor, creates that big wave. We had a 59-foot shift in those plates.

And like we talked about earlier in the program, the entire island of Japan has been measured to have moved east along with those plates at about eight feet, the axis of the Earth shifting by about four inches.

And to top all that off, on the extreme southern end of the island, guys, now we got eruptions happening with a volcano. It's been active and it was before the earthquake. But back in 1707 when Fuji erupted, there was a major, major earthquake that happened right around that time as well.

So, everything kind of connected just a little bit. You can't say for sure if one, you know, caused the other. But underneath the surface of the earth, it's constantly moving. Sometimes, it moves too much too quickly like in this case -- Christine, Kiran.

ROMANS: Thanks, Rob -- Rob Marciano.

MARCIANO: All right.

ROMANS: OK. In all of this despair, we have an extraordinary survival story. Look at his picture of a 60-year-old Japanese man who was swept out to sea by the tsunami. He was swept out to sea on his roof. He spent two days drifting before Japanese troops were able to rescue him yesterday.

He's OK. He fled his home when he heard a tsunami was coming. But he says he realized he forgot something, went back inside to get it when the wave hit. He says the water swept away his wife and his house, but not his hope.

CHETRY: Unbelievable.

Well, Japan's devastating quake and Tsunami, the iReporters were giving us an inside look of exactly what happened at the moments all of this were taking place. We're going to talk to one, coming up.

ROMANS: Yes, amazing pictures keep coming in.

And rebels are retreating in Libya's civil war. They have been driven from a key city to the east by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi. Now, Arab nations are calling on the U.N. to help remove this dictator from power.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Twelve minutes past the hour.

In Libya's civil war, forces loyal to dictator Moammar Gadhafi have now taken back control of the oil port city of al-Brega. Opposition leaders are confirming that they pulled out of al-Brega. But they're calling it a tactical retreat.

Meantime, the Arab League voted over the weekend to support a no-fly zone to protect Libyan civilians and plans now to formally ask the U.N. Security Council to enforce one.

ROMANS: We're learning more about the bus and company responsible for the deaths of 14 tourists in New York this weekend. According to reports, they've been in trouble before.

Bronx-based World Wide Travel was in two accidents in the past two years. They've also been cited for fatigues driving five times. The driver says he was clipped by a truck which forced him to skid into a guardrail and smash into a pole. But witnesses say he was speeding.

Police will analyze the camera in the bus and a GPS tracking device from the tractor trailer.

CHETRY: And Congress this week expected to pass a second stopgap funding bill, trying to prevent the government from shutting down on Friday. This measure, if approved, will keep the government running until April 8th. Meantime, they continue negotiations on a budget for the current fiscal year.

ROMANS: They saw it and they lived it. Now, iReporters are giving us a glimpse into the terror and chaos in Japan by sending us pictures and video.

Ryan McDonald is an American who's been teaching in Japan for nine years. Take a look at the video he shot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN MCDONALD, TEACHER IN JAPAN: Oh, my God. That is the biggest earthquake to date. It is still going. Oh, my God, the building is going to fall!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Ryan joins us live now from Kitakata, Japan, where he's taken refuge.

Ryan, good morning. That building when you see it shaking like that, at first, you must have thought this was just another Japanese earthquake and then at some point, it became clear that this was a very dangerous event.

MCDONALD: That's right. Actually, I didn't start filming until a minute into it. At first, it is a regular earthquake that we have, I would say once a month up to about three or four times a month. They last five to 10 seconds.

It's a little inconvenient, but it's not terrifying by any means. I know it's blase to say that. But we've gotten used to the smaller earthquakes. And that's what I thought it was at firs.

ROMANS: This one became -- this one became terrifying, though. A minute into it, you became terrified and began to take pictures.

MCDONALD: Right.

ROMANS: What did you do these pictures -- it looks like you left the house and what did you do?

MCDONALD: After I took the video?

ROMANS: Yes. I mean, when this is happening, were you trying to get out of the house? Were you trying to get into a doorway? What were you doing?

MCDONALD: Well, at first, I was very disoriented, because all the earthquakes I had previously been in in the past nine years have just been five to 10 seconds. If one lasted 20 seconds, that was a huge deal. So, this one was going on a minute. I stood up and went to the door because I didn't want to be in the apartment, and then, it kept getting worse, and it got worse. So then, I started filming it.

And then, it got worse again, and I said, oh, my God. This is the worst one to date. And then, it didn't stop. When I said oh, my God, the buildings are going to fall, it doesn't show it clearly on the video, but the walls and other houses and buildings were leaning in a way that I have never seen them lean. I don't even think that's -- I didn't think that was possible.

So, I said, oh, my God. The building is going to fall, and I foolishly ran between the two buildings. My plan was to escape into the parking lot, but when I ran between the two buildings, the clanking you hear that sounds like someone beating a trash can were the gas containers right beside me clanking. I looked at them, I looked at the ones behind me, and then, suddenly, the ground just bounced up some bikes right in front of me.

In one part of the video you can see that they're lined up against the wall, but then, suddenly, they're in the middle of the alley. And I just -- I was terrified at that point. I didn't know where to go. I was stranded between two gas tanks, so -- ROMANS: The ground is bouncing around and you see these gas tanks, you know, hopping around like children's toys. You think that they could explode. That there could be some danger for you. The bikes are flying all over the place. And now, you got a couple of days behind you. There's been this horrific tsunami. So, the country is just engulfed with a search and rescue operation right now.

And now, in the northern part of the country, there's a concern about a nuclear problem. We're still trying to get, Ryan, a good sense of what's happening at this Daiichi, you know, reactor number two. How concerned are you that this whole -- what started a minute into what you thought was a run of the mill earthquake is still going on? I mean, we still don't know how this is going to turn out.

MCDONALD: That's right. It's just adding insult to injury. The earthquake was horrible. Then the tsunami was horrible. That's not enough. Now, there's a nuclear fear. Our problem now is we just don't know what to do. We don't have solid information about the safety of the reactors. What does a meltdown exactly mean? Someone said level four.

Chernobyl was a level something else. We don't know what that means. So, luckily, out employers, the Koriyama Board of Education has said stay where you are. Don't come back to Koriyama yet. So, we just can't make a plan right now. We're in limbo, and that's the big problem for us.

ROMANS: Is there food in the grocery stores? Are people driving or is everyone just sitting tight right now?

MCDONALD: Well, this happens in Japan quite a lot, not the three things put together but earthquakes and other disasters like this. So, the Japanese people are very calm about it, but they also are very aware of the situation. So, the stores have some food. Let's see. Happened Friday, Friday night and Saturday in Koriyama, there was no food anywhere.

I think one clip you've shown is me holding up a cup of needles and saying, look, this is all I've had in 12 hours. Now, we can buy some food. It's very limited, and the lines are very long. There are long lines for gasoline. We can survive. I just had a nice salad and some noodles that our host had luckily fed us. They had available, but --

ROMANS: Ryan, thanks so much for you -- I mean, thanks for taking the video and sending it into us, but thanks also for giving us so much perspective. Ryan McDonald, thank you so much, Ryan. And I know that we have Stan Grant, actually, on the phone, right, Kiran? We have some breaking news on the situation, the nuclear situation that we've been talking about.

CHETRY: Yes. Just a lot of question as to whether or not there were any fuel rods exposed at any of these plants as they desperately try to keep the cooling systems going. Stan, what have you learned?

STAN GRANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on the phone): Yes. The cooling system has been knocked out in number two reactor. Now, we've been focusing on the number one and three reactor at Daiichi Plant. Well, today, the coolant in number two was also knocked out. That exposed the fuel rod there. That's where you get into dangerous territory if the water level drops too quickly.

What they need to do is to pump water into there. And as they did with reactors one and three, they pumped seawater into reactor two, and here is where it really gets strange because from where I stand, it's almost unbelievable, but apparently, the fuel in the pump ran low. Now, according to Japanese media, this seems to have been operational error.

At that point, the water level really dropped and exposed the reactor, exposed the reactor above the water line, of course, that generates so much heat. Now, with load (ph) since then, that that problem has been rectified. The seawater is now pumping in there, and they've stabilize the situation, but, of course, it's now created a lot more pressure and a lot more steam, and they're going to have to vent that.

They're going to have to release that. And when they release that steam, a measure of radiation is also released into the atmosphere. Now, the government has been following that level of radiation and say that it is still not at a level that is harmful to people, but of course, when you hear these stories, when you hear that exposure, possible meltdown radiation making steam all the rest of it, it does raise the anxiety level.

CHETRY: Absolutely. So, could you just explain to the layperson out there, what does it mean when you say that the fuel rod was exposed even if this was temporary and may now say it's been rectified?

GRANT: Very easy way to explain this. You imagine that you have a kettle at home. Inside the kettle, you have an element. You fill the kettle with water and the element heats that water. Now, if the water gets too low, the element is exposed. It can overheat and disintegrate. The same thing is happening here. You need to keep the water at a certain level while it is boiling and creating steam to be able protect the element.

That's essentially what happens here. Now, what they need to do is to pump water in there, stabilize that situation, but also, remember this, these are very, very sophisticated nuclear plants. These aren't like Chernobyl. Chernobyl was not built along the same modifications. It's best to imagine Three Mile Island in the states where you had the possible meltdown, but the containment, around that, the containment mechanisms worked and contained the radioactive material.

That's what they're hoping for here. They're assuming the worst, the potential meltdown. They're hoping that the containment vessels around that then secure it and don't allow that radiation to seep into the atmosphere.

ROMANS: And Stan, when that core melts, the big fear is that it melts into some sort of glob of this rise (ph) and ceramics and releases huge amounts of dangerous radiation into the air. They don't know how much radiation, if the core was exposed, they don't know how much this core melted. They don't know what it released at this point.

GRANT: Yes. Precisely. What happened here is you have a high degree of uranium in these fuel rods. When you get into a situation like this where the process (ph) they put in control rods and imagine a fire. A control rod goes in and it douses the fire, but you're left with the embers. Now, the embers are the residual radioactive material.

What they're trying to do now is to use the water to douse those embers. Now, if that melts down completely, what they're hoping for is that the various layers of containment actually trap that material and don't allow to seep out into the atmosphere. That's what they're thinking (ph) more. But I supposed where you could take the moment is that they're assuming the worst, but they're hoping the mechanisms work, and it doesn't get to that one.

ROMANS: You know, Stan, on Friday, the IAEA issued a statement just a few hours after the original earthquake and tsunami saying that all four of these reactors have been shut down safely. And now, in hindsight, we can see that there have just been sort of cascading issues at these plants, these facilities and these reactors.

What are people saying there now about the risks and what's happening here? I mean, from the beginning we were told this was being shut down safely, and it doesn't seem as though -- it seems to me like things have been getting out of their control.

GRANT: When you build a nuclear reactor particularly in a fault line like exists here in Japan, you have to build it to withstand any sort of eventuality. Now, shutting down is what they were meant to do. But then, when they went to fire up again, the cooling system was damaged. They went to get external power from the generator, that, too failed, and that brought on this crisis.

And I supposed what you had here is you have a situation where you've got a 13-mile exclusion zone, 200,000 people moved out of the area, a measure of radiation in the atmosphere, all did are (ph) levels that the authorities here say is more harmful to people, but you add all that up and, of course, you get anxiety and, of course, you get fear.

When you hear further stories, like today, an explosion at one of them, a hydrogen explosion not in the reactor, but in the building, when you hear that fuel in the pump running low and stopping water going to the reactor, well, again, that adds to the anxiety level again. People wonder whether the authorities and the officials actually have control of the situation.

CHETRY: Absolutely. One of the other issues -- and if you are just joining us, by the way, just to get you update on what is happening. We're learning that there was an exposure of one of the fuel rods in one of the reactors at the Fukushima plant. Stan has been following this. He was taking in what the authorities were saying at a news conference.

What are the biggest concerns right now and have they laid out a plan of action to put into place to make sure this situation doesn't get worse, Stan?

GRANT: The plan of action right now is to continue to cool that reactor. That's the priority number one. Now, I think you've heard from the authorities in the past, the officials who are saying that they are assuming that there has been a powerful or a likelihood of meltdown or partial meltdown in one of the reactors, potentially, two of the reactors. That's what they're assuming, but they haven't been able to confirm that.

So, in the meantime, to guard against that they have these safeguards, they've moved people away. They're continuing to pump seawater in there to try to cool the situation. Beyond that, like I say, there are various levels of containment. There are four separate layers of containment said it needs to get to before you actually get a situation where the really dangerous radioactive material seeps into the ground or released into the atmosphere.

So, again, they're assuming the worst. They're hoping that they're making these things work and it doesn't get to that point that these fail safe procedures kick in and if there's any greater disaster. But of course, the risk is that if the water melts down and this is an absolute going out right out on a limb here and getting into the absolute worst case scenario.

If there was a meltdown and material did escape, then you have the prospect of higher levels of radiation being exposed to people in the vicinity. That moves into a whole new ballgame. Right now, they're not at that point. This is a well designed facility, they assure us. And they're hoping that those mechanisms that are in place kick in, and thank (ph) God that material was escaping. You see (ph) do get to a point of a more complete meltdown.

ROMANS: We know Stan they're watching the prevailing winds which right now are moving offshore which is a help of the hydrogen gas that they've been releasing. Those controlled release of the hydrogen gas that may have a small amount of nuclear material. They're watching that very carefully to see, you know, where that will go in the atmosphere, and those prevailing winds are actually blowing offshore. So, clearly, the situation is still developing and changing.

CHETRY: Yes. And they're having a hard time, as Stan said, confirming for sure that this definitely happened. So, still a lot of questions. We're going to continue to follow it. Stan is getting new information, and we're going to check in with him, as well, from Japan. But first, we're going to take a quick break. It's 27 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: With each passing hour in Japan, the disaster deepens. The nation's National Police Agency confirms more than 1,800 people have died. Expectations are that number could go a lot higher, perhaps, exceeding 10,000 deaths as rescuers reach hard-hit area and they find more bodies. More than 2,300 people are listed as missing, and nearly 2,000 are being treated for injuries.

Food and fuel in short supply across the earthquake zone. Long lines at the few gas stations that are open, grocery store shelves are empty, and there are long lines at food and water distribution centers.

And the cooling system fails in another reactor at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear report. We're just getting reports now that the nuclear fuel rods at Fukushima's reactor number two were exposed for a short time. It comes just hours after a hydrogen explosion rocked the building containing Fukushima's number three reactor. It's the second hydrogen blast in three days at the facility. Government officials insist there is no serious danger from radiation.

CHETRY: Meantime in this country members of Congress are calling for a moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants. There will 104 up and running in the U.S. Of those 23 were built with designs similar to the Fukushima facility. Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey is one of those appealing for a nuclear timeout. He is on Capitol Hill this morning. Congressman, thanks for joining us.

REP. ED MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Thank you.

CHETRY: You wrote this letter and called for the moratorium on the building of new plants. Is it in response solely to what is happening in Japan?

MARKEY: Well, any plant that is being considered for a seismically vulnerable area in the United States should be reconsidered right now, in addition there is a proceeding that is ongoing at the nuclear regulatory commission that will approve a new design for a nuclear power plant, the Westinghouse AP 1,000.

And that plant according to one of the senior scientists would shatter like a glass cup under the stress we are seeing in Japan right now. So we just have to call a timeout and examine whether or not those safety features necessary in the future are built into new nuclear power plants in our country.

CHETRY: So you are concerned with the design that would be -- moving forward, how these plants would be built that would not be able to withstand an earthquake of the magnitude we have seen in Japan?

MARKEY: That is correct. For example, a nuclear power plant in California is only built to withstand 7.0 level. What we saw in Japan is 100 times greater in terms of its intensity. So we have to go back, re-evaluate what has happened. Look at the backup systems to make sure in the event of an earthquake there would be cooling fluids that could go into the nuclear power plants and that, in fact, we are handing out potassium iodide.

Believe or not I passed a law in 2002 after 9/11 requiring distribution of potassium iodide within a 20 mile radius around nuclear plants. CHETRY: That stops the body's absorption of radioactive material in the event of an emergency.

MARKEY: The Bush administration refused to distribute potassium iodide in the United States. And I believe that the Obama administration must ensure every family has access to the potassium iodide, especially to protect their children.

CHETRY: I understand. You are talking about worst case scenarios.

I want to ask you a couple things. One, many seismology experts, the greatest magnitude quake you would see in the San Andreas fault would be an 8.0, which is a bigger earthquake, but nowhere near the scale what they saw in Japan.

Secondly, most of the people who are analyzing what happened in Japan said after the earthquake what was supposed to happen at the plants did happen. The problem was the resulting tsunami knocking out power to those backup cooling systems.

MARKEY: These are all man made devices. And so it's impossible to totally predict all of the different kinds of events which can unfold in these types of circumstances. So in San Francisco in 1906 it was an earthquake, a 7.8. The San Onofri power plant is built to sustain a 7.0 earthquake. So none of the experts can be 100 percent certain as to what magnitude of earthquake can hit.

CHETRY: Are we boxing ourselves in? In 1979 we had Three Mile Island accident. They froze licenses for 30 years. There is trepidation when it comes to nuclear power. Other countries have harnessed it like France. But what do we do here? We have seen mining accidents. We saw the oil spill take place in the Gulf. Every way we get our electricity and power and energy to move forward has risks.

MARKEY: There's no question. That is not true. The natural gas --

CHETRY: The people who talk about hydro-fracking, and they say its destroying communities and they can light their faucets on fire, so they are complaining of that process.

MARKEY: They are, but it is a possibility to conduct that process that is safe in the same way it is safe to build nuclear power plants. We shouldn't build them on seismic faults because obviously this entire incident is demonstrating that there has been a seismic shift on how the American people and the marketplace will view nuclear power. It is a much more risky investment today than it was on Friday.

So I think we can build nuclear power plants potentially but only if safety features are built in mitigating against the disasters. It's a message to move to wind and solar and geothermal and all electric vehicles. There are technologies that don't melt down during an earthquake or collapse because of a hurricane or tsunami. They are there, don't have the same level of risk, and we should, again, invest in the future now as we receive these warnings knowing especially the financial marketplace -- Wall Street is what did in the nuclear industry after three mile island and Chernobyl. It is Wall Street again today that is going to believe that nuclear power has become an increasingly risky financial investment.

CHETRY: Right now it provides 20 percent of the country's electricity. Thanks for joining us Ed Markey from Massachusetts. Appreciate your time.

MARKEY: Thank you.

ROMANS: The earthquake in Japan forcing the biggest carmakers to shut down production. Find out what that means for dealers in the U.S.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: It's 40 minutes past the hour. P.J. Crowley resigning as the State Department's chief spokesperson after some comments he made that apparently angered the White House and senior administration officials by suggesting Army Private Bradley Manning was being mistreated. Manning is being held in solitary confinement, suspected of leaking classified State Department document in the WikiLeaks case.

Last week Crowley said what's being done to Manning is, quote, "ridiculous and stupid."

ROMANS: Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann making her first campaign visit to New Hampshire, but it's what she said may be the defining moment. During the speech the Tea Party favorite suggested the Revolutionary War began in New Hampshire rather than Massachusetts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN, (R) MINNESOTA: You are the state where the shot was heard around the world at Lexington and Concord.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Bachmann later corrected herself, writing on her Facebook page, quote, "It was my mistake. Massachusetts is where they happened. New Hampshire is where they are still proud of it."

Carmen Wong Ulrich joins us here now. We know on Friday the Japanese stock market only had a short time to react to the earthquake and tsunami, and today closing down six percent.

CARMEN WONG ULRICH, PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT: There was quite a big reaction today. The Nikkei closed six percent, the worst one day loss in two years. There was a sell-off of nuclear plants and insurers will get hit hard. As to the market response around the world, it is mixed. At home Dow futures are down slightly, markets in London are down slightly, while Hong Kong closed up slightly.

After a surge in auto sales most Japanese automakers were up in the double digits. The damage to the industry is not so much direct to the plants as indirect. Due to rolling blackouts and little infrastructure in place to get the new cars off the island, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan, have all shut down plants for at least the week.

Honda plants are not reopening until the 20th. Our most popular imports the Toyota Corolla, Camry, and Honda Accord are made in the U.S., but other energy efficient models like the Prius, the Scion and Honda Fit could end up in short supply this summer. We import 1.5 million cars a year from Japan.

CHETRY: And hybrids and electric models are very popular.

ULRICH: They are very popular with oil prices.

CHETRY: Carmen, thank you.

Up next, your travel forecast. We'll be right back. It's 42 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: It's 45 minutes past the hour. As we talked about it and you reported it on a lot --

ROMANS: Right.

CHETRY: -- they needed to do something in Detroit especially to help the failing public school system. And they may have a plan right now, a proposal that would save some of the worst performing schools. Under this plan, 41 schools -- which is about one-third -- would be turned into charter schools.

Otherwise the city would have been forced to close them because of budget cuts. The move would save the city up to $99 million.

ROMANS: All right. Now we're going to take a look at the weather, extreme weather in the U.S. Jennifer Delgado is covering things for us from the CNN Center in Atlanta. Hi, Jennifer.

JENNIFER DELGADO, CNN INTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Kiran and hi Christine.

I want to point out to you since we last checked -- I want to point out to you on the radar we're starting to see a few more of those storms develop down towards the south. Let's go right over here to the radar and show you exactly what we're talking about.

Here is our area of low pressure and our cold front. You can see snow in the back side but we're dealing with some stronger storms and they're going to be coming through Houston as we go through the next several hours and spreading over towards parts of Tennessee and as well as into Kentucky.

Now as I mentioned to you some snow out there. But it's really not going to be that big of a deal. We're talking about one to two inches of snow coming down right now through St. Louis and spreading all the way over towards Kansas City.

But again, just check ahead for potentially some delays. And we'll get to those delays right now. You can see overall things aren't looking so bad for all the airports coming into and out of New York. You can see some delays about 30 to 60 minutes, for Cleveland to Detroit the same thing and for Memphis and Houston as well as Seattle, 30 to 60 minutes.

So despite a little bit of snow and the rain out there, we're really doing pretty good in the sky. Kiran Chetry -- let's send it back over to you.

CHETRY: All right, thanks so much, Jennifer.

DELGADO: You're welcome.

CHETRY: Coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING the -- oh, you probably have been staying up nights worrying about what -- who you're going to fill into your brackets, right?

ROMANS: I'm not -- I'm not a bracket geek. I am not a bracket geek, I can go over, you know, stock market close like -- like nobody does but not brackets --

(CROSS TALK)

CHETRY: Yes that's why I thought you'd be pretty good at this.

Well, the NCAA tournament field is set. And now you know, ok, stop the mumbling over your team didn't make it. Now it's time to get down to business.

We're going to talk to Sir Charles Barkley about the pretournament madness. He is not just a legendary player, he's also a doctor of bracketology (ph).

In fact, maybe he can help me out.

ROMANS: Maybe he can teach me a few things --

CHETRY: He's in this crazy March Madness lounge right here in our building. And we're going to check in with him coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Ten minutes to the top of the hour. Ten minutes for you to be wherever you've got to be by the top of the hour. Short on sleep: not a problem for a few of us anyway.

We sprung ahead an hour this weekend. But it turns out not everyone dreads Daylight Saving Time. Scientists say they've identified natural short sleepers, people who actually have a gene mutation which allows them to function on less sleep. So the recommended seven or eight hours isn't a must. Instead, four hours can do the trick.

You know people like this, I know people like this. I've never understood it. But experts warned that sleep deprivation still can cause fatigue and poor performance and health problems.

CHETRY: Yes we need sleep. And speaking of the daylight saving, you know, my iPhone let me down again.

ROMANS: I've been hearing from a lot of people on this.

CHETRY: I set my recurring alarm, it would not allow me to set it for the time that I need to set it for and then it didn't go off anyway.

ROMANS: So how did you get up?

CHETRY: I had what is called a clock radio.

ROMANS: Do you plug it into the wall?

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: They're very strange. Yes, you plug it in the wall and you set it --

ROMANS: And it works.

CHETRY: And it works. Sometimes, the tried and true is the best way to go, right? Hopefully they will have this fixed next year.

Anyway, celebs are using their fame to bolster relief efforts in Japan. Lady Gaga is at the forefront on this. She is rallying her loyal fan base, of course, the little monsters, to purchase red and white wristbands that say we pray for Japan.

Meantime Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda is pulling out all of the stops -- he designed a T-shirt to benefit music for relief -- tsunami relief. And also the Red Cross urging the country to donate, again, you're able to do that by text message. So a lot of people trying to show their concern for what Japan is going through right now.

We're going to take a quick break. Fifty-one minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: We're going to lighten the mood now. With a word that is on a lot of minds today, brackets. We've got -- the NCAA men's basketball tournament begins tomorrow.

CHETRY: That's right. And we've got to look at the big grid. 68 teams -- there are 68 teams this year which is more than usual, do you know that? But people are still mad that their teams didn't make it.

But you have to move on. Here you go. These are the 68 to choose from. And let's look at the number one seed. In the east, it's Ohio State. In the West, it is Duke. In the southwest, Kansas -- a lot of people saying Kansas is going to win. And in the southeast it is Pittsburgh.

For the first time the games are going to be airing on channels in the Time Warner family. And this is exciting because you're going to be able to see a lot more of the action.

Sir Charles Barkley will be covering the games for Turner Sports, which is part of Turner Broadcasting just like CNN. And he joins us -- he is a few floors down from where we are here at AMERICAN MORNING, in the bracket lounge. Charles, great to see you this morning.

CHARLES BARKLEY, TURNER SPORTS: Hey, thanks for having me.

CHETRY: So, are you excited looking at the field that's out there? Looking at the number one seeds, looking at the fact that they added a few more teams this year? What do you think?

BARKLEY: Well, I think it is going to be exciting this joint venture with CBS and Time Warner. And you know we've got the games -- we've got to let everybody know the tournament starts tomorrow night on TruTV. But this is all new to us. We are having a blast so far.

CHETRY: The cool part is, as you're saying, they have done some partnerships so that people can see more of the games around the same time which is really neat for basketball fans.

BARKLEY: Well, in the last forever you only have a certain game in your region. Now with the partnership with CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV, you got to get to see every game. That is exciting in its own right.

CHETRY: What the heck are the people doing behind you right? It looks like when I take my kids to a Chuck E Cheese or something.

BARKLEY: This is worse than a Chuck E Cheese. We have everything going on here. We have cheerleaders. We have bracketologists. We have everything going on. We are having a blast over here. It is a little early in the morning for me, but we are having a blast.

ROMANS: So Charles, I have to ask you about potential (INAUDIBLE) activity with all these new -- all these new ways to watch basketball over the next couple of weeks. I mean now you can watch multiple games at the same time, even less reason to be doing your job?

BARKLEY: Well, listen, we are after taking all our time. We're away from the NBA for the next three weeks, but it is going to be exciting.

The best thing about it is for the fans though. You get to watch every game. You never have been able to do that before. You got hamstrung by the game they wanted to show in your area. It's going to be better for the fans to watch every game. But you have to find it on one of those networks.

CHETRY: Yes, you're right. And so, ok -- so you are a bracketologist. You are good at this. I have to make my picks a little bit later today and all the CNN family, we're going head to head with each other. But a lot of people have Ohio State as the favorite. Do you agree?

BARKLEY: I do not. I have Kansas as the favorite.

CHETRY: That is what I was going to say. I think Kansas is looking good this year.

BARKLEY: Well, Ohio State has had a terrific season. But when I looked at all the teams at head to head competition, watching them play. People like to say that I have (INAUDIBLE). The best team I saw all year was Kansas.

And actually in fairness Pittsburgh is pretty good also. Those are the only number one seeds I think are going to make it. They have a good chance of making it to the final four, to be honest with you.

CHETRY: Now, a lot of people love to do -- they love to see number one seeds knocked off early. Last year we really didn't have a lot of upsets in fact. What do you think? Do you see any of these number one seeds getting knocked out early?

BARKLEY: Well, let's get something. There is no dominant team in the country this year. There are to me about ten teams that could actually win this thing. I'm going to stick with Kansas because they have been, to me, the best team all year.

But once you get past the number one seed there are some really good teams out there. San Diego State has a really good chance. You know, people talk about that they're on a great run. But don't be surprised -- don't be totally surprised if a lot of number one seeds lose this year.

CHETRY: All right. I won't be surprised.

Now, I want to show you this. We are going to have some fun with some pictures on your show.

We dug up a rare photo of Charles Barkley. This is from your college playing days. We'll call it 1981. Take the photo. Looks like you're training here. Can you see it?

BARKLEY: I can't see it.

CHETRY: All right. There it is.

BARKLEY: Oh, good. I'm glad you didn't show my shorts. I'm a big pizza guy.

CHETRY: That's the best -- I mean look, what is a better workout food than pizza.

BARKLEY: I'm carb loading.

CHETRY: Exactly.

ROMANS: Do those guns still look like that, Charles?

BARKLEY: No. My guns do not still look like that.

CHETRY: That is unbelievable. You could bench press Christine with one hand and me with the other with those things.

ROMANS: And eat a pizza.

BARKLEY: No. We call those the good old days.

CHETRY: Listen, I'm going to come down and join you in the lounge because it looks like fun and it's right here in the building. And we encourage everybody to check it out. And you're going to be analyzing all of this on TNT. So the fun starts tomorrow.

Charles, thanks so much.

BARKLEY: Thanks for have me.

ROMANS: What I don't get is why Duke is in the west and the southeast is Pittsburgh. I don't get -- I don't get all that.

CHETRY: You know, they jumble that up.

ROMANS: I'm too linear. I'm too linear. That is why bracketology always gets me. It really does.

CHETRY: I'm picking Kansas. I'm going say Charles Barkley told me Kansas. How can I go wrong.

ROMANS: All right. You're picking Kansas. And you can watch it on three TVs all at once.

CHETRY: Well, that's going to do it for us. I know that Carol Costello would love to be up here too because you have your share of fun in the lounge. Let me guess? You are going for Ohio State?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN GUEST ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": You guessed it. How did you guess?

I can only say Charles Barkley looked really tired so I'm not sure I'd go with his pick, Kiran.

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: Carol.

ROMANS: But he was coherent which is all that matter.

CHETRY: He needs a pizza.

COSTELLO: He does. He needs that pizza now. Thanks guys. Catch you tomorrow.