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Japan's Nuclear Crisis Escalates: The Threat of a Radiation Leak; Nikkei Plunges as Nuclear Crisis Escalates; Tracking Radiation

Aired March 15, 2011 - 06:00   ET

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


CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: On this AMERICAN MORNING, a potential nuclear catastrophe is unfolding in northeast Japan. There's been a new explosion at one reactor and a fire in another, sending dangerous levels of radioactive material spewing into the atmosphere.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And there are warnings this morning from Japan's prime minister that everyone within 20 miles of the plant needs to stay inside. But will that do any good? A change in wind direction this morning could put even more people in harm's way.

ROMANS: The Japanese stock market plunges. Investors watching to see how the nuclear crisis there will impact portfolios here as safe haven investments like gold and silver retreat. We'll explain why.

CHETRY: Also, Tiger Woods going one-on-one with late night's Jimmy Fallon on TV. We know he's good on the links (ph) but how is he on the mini golf course? Much more on that when AMERICAN MORNING starts now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We need now for everybody to move out of the 20-kilometer radius from the number one plant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A new warning from Japan's prime minister after another explosion and fire rocked Daiichi power plant. Japan's nuclear crisis is deepening on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Hello, 6:00 in the East, I'm Christine Romans.

CHETRY: I'm Kiran Chetry. Thanks for being with us here. We really are trying to dissect some of these new developments. It's very unclear exactly what is happening in Japan. We do know that there are growing health concerns due to another explosion at their nuclear power plant at Daiichi.

ROMANS: And we know as this nuclear crisis unfolds, you have stock markets around the world plunging. Japanese stock market down more than 10 percent. You have European markets just opening now and they are down all very, very sharply. We'll continue to watch what that means in the United States where stocks here are also expected to open lower.

CHETRY: Right. And all of this fears of a nuclear crisis in Japan and they may be founded this morning. There are several new disturbing elements to tell you about. One is that Japan's prime minister is admitting now that radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have reached levels that can, quote, "impact human health." What that exactly means, we still don't know this morning. Everyone, though, within about 12 miles of the facility have been told to remain indoors. That's nearly 150,000 people.

ROMANS: The Japanese government is being very clear that the risk of further radioactive releases remains, quote, "very high" because there's been a new explosion at reactor number two at the Daiichi facility and reactor number four is on fire. That means four reactors from Daiichi facility have suffered extensive damage. Three of them are in some stage of melting down, and nearly everyone who works at the plant, some 800 people now have evacuated leaving just a few dozen workers to try to cool down those overheating reactors. CNN international correspondent Stan Grant has the latest on all of this crisis from Tokyo.

STAN GRANT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The nuclear emergency here in Japan continues to move into uncharted waters. There has been so many developments and so much confusion about those developments. There was a hydrogen explosion in reactor number three earlier this day. Now that has raised speculation that it may have damaged the containment vessel which houses the fuel rod. There was also a spark in radiation around about the same time. It was measuring the highest reading yet recorded way above the previous readings. And that was inside the plant itself.

Officials saying that reading would be dangerous to human health. Then they're also dealing with a fire in reactor number four. Now, according to officials, there was a build-up of heat and spent fuel rods were sitting in a pool. That pool of water may have evaporated exposing those rods, and they may have been damaged also releasing radioactive material into the air.

Now at the same time they're continuing to put safeguards in place to try to protect people. The 20-kilometer, the 12 or 13-mile exclusion zone is in place. Two hundred thousand people have been evacuated. Now, the prime minister is also warning that people within a 30- kilometer radius must also keep their windows closed, their doors closed, and stay inside as a precaution.

Now, radiation levels have been also detected in Tokyo, but not yet at a level that would cause any distress or any injury or harm to humans. But so many issues to be juggled here, trying to cool those reactors, find out the damage from the explosion and the damage from the fire.

Stan Grant, CNN, Tokyo.

ROMANS: Stan is following all the stories up to the minute, so if there's any change in developments he'll have those for us throughout the hour. CHETRY: And we're still trying to sort through exactly how significant is this health wise. But we do know that radioactive material is now being released into the air in northeast Japan. And the wind direction becomes a critical part of this equation.

We're going to our meteorologist Jennifer Delgado in Atlanta this morning. What do we know right now about the winds and how they may perhaps be carrying these nuclear plumes? Radioactive plumes rather?

JENNIFER DELGADO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. You know, Kiran, right now, we've been actually dealing with winds coming in from the east- northeasterly direction for about the last five to six hours and that's certainly not the direction we want to see because that's an onshore flow.

You're looking at a graphic right here and it's showing you some of the winds across the region. Of course, we're watching the Fukushima Daiichi plant, but again, with those winds coming in from the east/northeast, right now, roughly about five to 10 miles per hour. That is going to push that potential for that radioactive material towards more populated area. What we really want to see is actually an offshore flow. And that's what we've been really dealing with over the last several days.

As I show you on this graphic, we're going to see an area of low pressure pushing through. And that's actually going to swing those winds around from the northwest. That is actually going to be offshore and that is going to improve conditions. But that's not going to happen for about another 12 hours. We're talking about 7:00 to 8:00 local time for areas including Sendai, of course, and areas down towards the south, closer to Fukushima. So again, that's what we're expecting. But in addition to the winds, we're also talking about cold temperatures and we're talking about snow and potentially some heavy rain moving into the earthquake-struck region as well as the tsunami damage region.

You could see on this graphic right here, we're talking about some snow even for areas including Sendai. You have to keep in mind so many people actually homeless and lost everything. You don't want these temperatures. And they're certainly going to be below freezing.

Kiran and Christine, we'll talk more about this later. Right now, I'll send it back over to you.

CHETRY: All right. Thanks. That just adds to the humanitarian crisis here as you deal with these temperatures and power outage in so many areas there.

ROMANS: That's right.

OK. So just how much of a threat is it that the radiation leaking into the atmosphere? Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is live in Akita, Japan.

Sanjay, what can you tell us about what kind of threat there is from what's happening there? SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, information is still coming out slowly here. You know, you've heard a lot about the concerns about cooling, the concerns about -- excuse me -- fires, explosions. But the readings of just how much radiation was released and obviously a critical part of this whole puzzle.

The measure of this is important. And I don't want to get too bogged down on the details, but remember the term "Sievert" or "millisievert" particularly. That's sort of a way of measuring not only how much radiation is being absorbed by the body but also giving you an idea of what type of radiation this is.

The highest reading that we've heard about today was 400 millisieverts. So that was a reading taken inside close to one of the particular reactors. That's a high number. It's much higher than it should be. And we also heard another important fact, which is that even up to 175 miles away on the USS George Washington, they were detecting low levels of radiation.

So imagine radiation gets released as it starts to disperse. The amount of radiation, the levels are going to start to go down. Four hundred millisieverts, you know, just walking around a country like the United States, for example, you're subjected to about three millisieverts in a given year. You get a chest x-ray, that's a few millisieverts. Get a CT scan, that can be a few hundred millisieverts. So 400 at one given time, again, right next to the reactor. What that means for people outside the gates, what that means for people tens of kilometers away, still unclear. But you can get a sense it's still a relatively low amount that we're talking about.

Now one thing that I want to show you really quickly here is something known as a personal dosimeter. This is something you carry around. You wear it on your body and basically it sounds an alarm if you've been subjected to one full Sievert. So you have 400 millisieverts, 2 1/2 times that and this would actually alarm. It also gives you an idea of just how much radiation you're being exposed to. This is one way you can sort of get an idea of the concerns or the levels of radiation, but that's sort of the global context trying to piece all these various numbers and all these pieces of information together.

ROMANS: And that's what it's all about, Sanjay. Trying to figure out that information because there are so many unknowns and we know that it's changing literally by the minute.

Sanjay Gupta in Akita, Japan. Thanks, Sanjay.

CHETRY: Meantime, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is meeting with Japan's foreign minister at a G-8 summit in Paris where she's offering condolences and also pledging America's assistance as Japan struggles to contain a nuclear crisis that is spiraling out of control.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: Japan is always a very generous donor to any disaster anywhere in the world. And today the world comes together to support Japan in its hour of need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Japan's foreign minister told Secretary Clinton that his government and the Japanese people are grateful for America's encouragement and assistance.

ROMANS: OK. So no surprise that the Japanese stock market plunged again at this crisis. At one point, the Nikkei was down more than -- I mean, 14 percent. U.S. stocks could fall sharply today. Carmen Wong Ulrich joins us right now.

Futures are pointing down, 262 points. This is a human and an economic disaster. And no surprise, I guess, the stock markets are reacting like this.

CARMEN WONG ULRICH, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Not really. I mean, the nuclear crisis is hitting all the markets in Asia. All the markets down in Asia, and especially the Japan's markets today.

The Nikkei closed down 10.2 percent while the Tokyo stock price index, top fell 9.5 percent. And these are the market's largest percentage fall since October 2008 and their third largest percentage fall on record. Now, the losses were reflected, of course, all across the Asian markets which were all down. Globally though, there's a continuing selloff of commodities, specifically metals, gold, silver and platinum. Now gold is usually a place, a haven where people go in times of stress, but it's down one percent today after rising one percent on Monday. And silver fell around three percent. Platinum and palladium dropped more than one percent.

A couple of reasons here. Some of the selloff is due to investors looking to cover market losses. There's also the mounting pressure of lagging demand. Because these precious metals are used in the manufacturing of chips as well as pollution control devices in cars and trucks, these are two powerhouse Japanese businesses that have been shut down this week.

ROMANS: Yes. I would say there's a lot more to do with the industrial applications and concerns about that than anything else. Also, believe it or not, people are watching what's happening in the Middle East, in Bahrain, and what that could mean for, you know, for the economy and for oil prices, as well. So even though this is the big story, still watching what's happening.

CHETRY: And we're seeing all the European markets one after the other coming in closing down today.

ROMANS: Yes, absolutely. Because they're opening up big, they're opening down big in the last few minutes.

ULRICH: Big. Absolutely.

ROMANS: So we'll watch how those --

CHETRY: Dow futures? Do we know -- ULRICH: Dow futures down, as well, about 200 points. So we're going to see today how this all shapes up. Every day is going to be different.

ROMANS: All right, Carmen Wong Ulrich.

ULRICH: Thank you.

ROMANS: Thanks, Carmen.

CHETRY: All right. We'll see you coming up again in the next hour.

Meantime on AMERICAN MORNING, a desperate situation in Japan as we talk about this new explosion at the Daiichi nuclear facility. It's still hard to really understand just how pervasive this is and whether or not this is just the beginning. We're going to be talking to a nuclear expert on how to handle a situation, just how dire it is.

ROMANS: As nuclear fears grow, so does the death toll from the quake and the tsunami in Japan.

CHETRY: Also, we will be talking with a member of the International Red Cross. Huge challenges in terms of helping with the humanitarian crisis. They're trying to get relief supplies to areas hardest hit by the disaster, what their action plan is and how you can help.

It's 11 1/2 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: We have some new images this morning showing the sheer destructive force of the tsunami that has devastated Japan. The video was shot by James McWhite, a freelance photographer from America who's living in Tokyo.

Now, his camera captured an entire town being washed away. And in the background, you can hear the sirens warning of the tsunami. This amateur video comes from the town of Kamaishi. It's in northeast Japan. And it captures the moment that the tsunami came crashing ashore. You see buildings simply collapse under the pressure of the water taking out everything in its path.

And here's other video to show you of the tsunami hitting Japan's coast. It was obtained by the NHK World Network and contained some of the most graphic pictures to date of the disaster. And there you see that huge wave just pouring into the town - Christine.

ROMANS: Kiran, as the nuclear crisis deepens in Japan, let's look at how this disaster unfolded inside the reactors. First, this is all the seismic activity that you've seen in Japan over the past week. I mean, the original seismic event, you can't even see it anymore because these little - these little yellow dots show you just how many other aftershocks they've been.

Now, here's inside the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant. This is before the quake and tsunami. This is Reactor One, Two, Three and Four. Most recently we know there's been an explosion here at Reactor Number Four. Three explosions overall and a fire. I want to take you inside here now on what exactly is happening inside that reactor. Hold on a second. There we go. So this is the core. These are the control rods coming up, these are the fuel rods that have the nuclear material in there. The - the nuclear reaction causes the - the heat and the energy that makes this - that makes the energy and powers the plant.

Now here is the first - you can see it failed, the first cooling mechanism, here's the second cooling mechanism that also failed within like an hour of the - of the earthquake. And this is the third mechanism, which is a battery-powered mechanism that also failed. That means inside, because there's not water pumping in one, two, three different ways into this fuel core, you have heat. And that heat is a serious problem as this begins to melt, as you begin to damage this core.

Engineers went to battery pumps. Those worked for a while, they went dead. They say that - you saw the diesel pumps, they worked for a while and went dead. It's not exactly clear what happened.

But in the last-ditch effort now, they're starting to pump sea water into this core, into this reactor. Remember, if these rods become exposed, the temperature inside the system can skyrocket, Kiran, to nearly 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit. That's hot enough to melt the fuel rods, that's the serious concern everyone has about these reactors - Kiran.

CHETRY: Absolutely.

And as Christine just illustrated, these concerns happened after an explosion at that second reactor at the Daiichi facility. And Japan's Prime Minister admitting now that the radiation levels at the plant have reached levels that can, quote, "impact human health." Exactly what that means is still unclear.

Glenn Sjoden is a professor of Nuclear Engineering at Georgia Tech University. He joins us via Skype from Texas to break down all of this for us. Good morning, Glenn.

GLENN SJODEN, PROFESSOR OF NUCLEAR ENGINEERING, GEORGIA TECH UNIVERSITY: Good morning.

CHETRY: How did this go from a situation where they felt they were at least going to be able to get a handle on this, find some productive backup system to continue to cool to what we're talking about today, which is the leak of at least some amount of radiation from one of these reactors?

SJODEN: Well, I've got to tell you, things have dramatically changed in the last several days. Initially, you know, they were recording just slightly elevated radiation levels of the site boundary because they were venting small puffs from the building to relieve pressure. And that - that was very short-lived. (INAUDIBLE) became, you know, pretty fast as they were vented out of the plant. So levels were extremely low. This is a very different situation. We have some fraction of the core has melted. Releasing some (INAUDIBLE) products to the atmosphere as they're - as they're relieving pressure in this system. It's very - very much more grave situation.

CHETRY: Right. And -

SJODEN: The radiation levels they're recording, they're pretty significant. No question.

CHETRY: And Glenn, let me ask you about this, so you say is this uncharted territory? Or is there a plan moving forward? Has - have they come back from this brink before?

SJODEN: To my knowledge, I don't think we've pushed - we've pushed a plant this hard. There's been tests - you know, there have been tests done on individual fuel elements and things where we, you know, pushed them hard and tested a lot of heat transfer and other things over the years, but this is pretty much for this reactor, these series of reactors uncharted territory.

ROMANS: Glenn, you talked about a significant release of nuclear -

SJODEN: This is not (INAUDIBLE) I like to see. I'm telling you -

CHETRY: Right.

SJODEN: -- I'm very upset about what I'm seeing just because, you know, it's very unfortunate, and I - and I know they're doing everything they can.

ROMANS: And Glenn, I think your perspective is reflected by a lot of the nuclear physicists we've talked to and experts who've said they've started cautious and now they're - excuse me - they're getting more concerned. You said a significant amount of radioactive material. I mean, what do you think is coming out of that plant?

SJODEN: Well, when you have fuel failures, you're going to have breach of the fuel rods and you're going to have noble gases, Iodine 131, Cesium 137 or the main principal volatilized components they're going to be vented. And the fact that the radiation levels between the buildings, as I'm looking at some of the reports, some of those radiation levels are quite high. And the only thing that can come from is having (INAUDIBLE) products and other things being vented from the - from the building.

It's unfortunate that that is occurring, but that indicates that there has definitely been some level of melting and breach of primary containment, which is, you know, the fuel element itself has been compromised in several of those assemblies or many of those assemblies. I don't know what levels.

Based on the levels that I see of radiation, it's very difficult (INAUDIBLE) from many thousands of miles away, not being there on the ground. But I can tell you that based on my experience, I believe that only partial melting has occurred because the radiation levels if it were total melting would be significantly higher.

ROMANS: But these are radiation levels, Glenn that hurt - that will - that will hurt people. I mean you're very concerned about this being in the atmosphere where it goes from here.

SJODEN: Well, I can tell you as far as - I'm really concerned for the people at the plant. Because the levels at the plant are very high. They're accumulating some significant (INAUDIBLE) there. Now, radiation workers itself already accumulate many times what the average population does as a result of their job and radiation workers accept that and actually it's deemed to be a safe level. But you're accumulating these now at rates where it's going to impact even the workers I think over a prolonged period.

As far as atmosphere transports goes, typically most of the - most of the - if there are any solids ejected out, aerosolites (ph), whatever, what have you, most of those I believe all within the first two to three kilometers - are downwind. So it's going to be immediate - in the immediate zones around the plant.

ROMANS: And we know that's where they've evacuated even beyond that kind of a level probably because they're watching the same sorts - same sorts of trajectories.

Glenn Sjoden, thank you so much, Nuclear Engineering professor at Georgia Tech College in the State of Texas (ph). Thanks so much for joining us.

CHETRY: And some of the reports say they actually dismiss, I guess, you could say about 800 - there were 800 workers there, they have it down to a core 50 -

ROMANS: Right.

CHETRY: -- who are working at enormous risk to their own lives. So a situation influx.

Our Anderson Cooper will be broadcasting live from the heart of the destruction in Japan. You can catch him, by the way, tonight, "AC 360" 10:00, Eastern.

ROMANS: To see some of Japan's ongoing recovery efforts and charities and find out ways you can help, please visit our "Impact Your World" page at CNN.com/Impact.

CHETRY: And we're also following other news this morning.

Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, Tiger Woods takes on late night. He sits down with Jimmy Fallon in his first talk show appearance since the sex scandal that ruined his marriage.

ROMANS: And his golf game.

And a party as a parting gift to the City of Boston, nearly $1 million. But the price comes with a catch. We'll tell you about the most unusual bequest for Boston. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: New details this morning about the tour bus driver responsible for the horrific crash that killed 15 people in New York this weekend. Police say he had a poor driving record and a criminal record. Ophadell Williams was caught driving with a suspended license twice and he served prison time for manslaughter and grand larceny. All of this begging the question, how did he even get his commercial driver's license in the first place?

Meanwhile, police are retracing his every step, scouring surveillance tapes from the bus and the casino. Williams claims he swerved to avoid a tractor-trailer. He has not been charged.

CHETRY: Another deadly tour bus accident to tell you about. This one happened in New Jersey on the Turnpike last night. Police say that a bus operated by the Super Luxury Tours drove into the median, struck part of an overpass, and then crashed into an embankment. Two people were killed including the driver. Dozens of others suffered injuries. No word yet on what caused this accident, but, again, this bus is headed from China Town to Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, New York Senator Chuck Schumer is demanding the NTSB review safety regulations for these discount tour bus industries after these two deadly bus crashes.

ROMANS: And a late night coupe for Jimmy Fallon. Tiger Woods will make his first post-scandal talk show appearance on Fallon's NBC Late Night Show tomorrow night. Fallon says he's planning to play around the mini-golf with Tiger.

CHETRY: Well, not sure how the next of kin is reacting to the news, but a wealthy Italian man has left his entire estate to the City of Boston. Luciano Visocchi (ph) he named Boston heir, honoring the city that his family loved. The estate's worth about $1 million. The catch, though, is that the will stipulates that to get the inheritance, the City of Boston is obliged to look after two dogs and five cats of the deceased owner.

ROMANS: A bequest with strings.

CHETRY: There you go.

ROMANS: With leashes attached.

CHETRY: And does the city have to pay an estate tax, too? That's an entire city.

ROMANS: Oh, that's a good question.

CHETRY: You know, it's 50 percent of right off the top, right?

ROMANS: That's a good question.

All right. Next on AMERICAN MORNING, the rescue and the recovery effort underway in Japan. CNN's Soledad O'Brien seeing firsthand just how monumental this task is. She's going to join us live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Crossing the half hour right now. We want to bring you up to date of the situation in Japan -- especially the nuclear situation is deteriorating this morning from all accounts.

There's been a new explosion at one reactor, a fire in another -- and this means now that four reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant have been damaged in some way. Some high radiation levels also detected, dangerously high right now, in the air. Japan's prime minister is warning everyone within 20 miles of the facility to remain inside for now.

ROMANS: Meanwhile, the growing nuclear threat has overshadowed the ongoing rescue and recovery effort days after the quake and tsunami, pictures of the devastation are still, frankly, very hard to comprehend. CNN's Soledad O'Brien got a firsthand look at one of the hardest areas -- hardest hit areas in the town of Kesennuma.

Soledad is in Akita, Japan, this morning and joins us live.

Good morning, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yes, the nuclear issue is one of the reasons we moved a little bit north. But Kesennuma, which is where we were a little bit earlier, Japanese time, is about 2 1/2 hours' drive outside of Sendai, which is where we were reporting from yesterday. And one of the things you see there is debris -- a debris field like I have not seen really since our coverage of the earthquake in Haiti or even maybe Katrina, 10 feet high.

One of the things we've done very well -- you need to take a look at some of these pictures -- is they're really paving pretty efficiently the roads. So, it's passable now. And the debris is piled up on either side. But it's pretty staggering, it's what it looks like when a tsunami, massive tsunami hits a pretty decent-sized city, it's said to have 70,000 people or so. And what we've been told by some of the people there as they began doing search and rescue.

And you could, for the first time, I really noticed that sickly smell you can get when you tell a body is decomposing. The first time we really saw them heavy into the rescue -- the searching for bodies and really not trying to do much rescue. There's a sense that anybody who was alive, they would have pulled out already.

A little bit earlier, I went to the center of town to walk around. Take a look at what we've found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: You can see those overturned cars down there and just absolute debris. This is what it looks like when a tsunami slams into a much bigger city. This city has a population of -- it's called Kesennuma -- and has a population of about 70,000 people we're told. And so, the damage: 90 percent tsunami, 10 percent earthquake damage.

So, these buildings collapsed although some of them were able to hold up well. But look at this. This is the kind of -- really almost equivalent to some of the stuff we saw in Haiti where just -- the structure just folds in on itself. That's because the earthquake happened. And then residents here tell us about 15 minutes later, from the water, came a massive wave that just roared through this town that goes straight up that way, collapsed everything here, and the force of the water -- as you can see -- powerful enough to bring this ship in on the sidewalk.

So, when people are trying to figure out just how strong and powerful a tsunami can be, this is a pretty good example of what the people here are dealing with. It is no surprise that a number of people in this town lost their lives, that the search and rescue is still looking for more people.

And today, they're trying to figure out what to do next. Many people asked us: what do you know? What are you hearing? We're not getting any information. Kesennuma, about two hours north of Sendai, some of the people here are saying they feel very cut off from understand what the next step's going to be.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Some good news is that the ferry was running again -- the ferry that goes about 20 minutes away to a little island. And so, we have a chance to meet some of the people coming off that ferry. For the first time since the earthquake, they were brought off that island, and happened to run into a young man whose parents -- he is an American from Michigan. His parents at the same time were looking frantically for him.

A little bit later this morning, we'll tell you about a young man named Paul who at the age of 25 has lived through an earthquake, and a tsunami, and also an international manhunt for him by his parents. We were lucky to happen upon him. And we'll bring you that story around 8:50 a.m. Eastern Time today.

Back to you, Christine.

ROMANS: Look forward to that, that bright spot. Thank you so much, Soledad.

CHETRY: The picture of that ship on the sidewalk is stunning, to say the least.

Well, we're also continuing to follow developments in Libya this morning at the civil war there continues. Rebels holding off government troops and battle for a key eastern port, all while the White House as well as other world bodies consider the risks of a no- fly zone.

ROMANS: And a sad day for NASA. A worker loses his life while working on space shuttle Endeavour's final mission.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Thirty-nine minutes past the hour.

Forces loyal to dictator Moammar Gadhafi have now regained control of a town of Zawiyah from rebel troops. That's according to an opposition spokesman. Meanwhile, it is still unclear who has control of the oil port city al Brega. Opposition fighters appeared to have slowed Gadhafi's troops from advancing further east.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the U.S. has the resources to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya, but he says that government officials are still debating if that's a wise thing to do.

ROMANS: The U.S. government telling Americans to leave Bahrain as protests there reach a boiling point. Troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were called in to help beef up security. Protests in the tiny oil-rich country have been going on for weeks now as demonstrators trying to oust the royal family.

Human rights activists say more than 1,000 people were hospitalized Sunday when fighting broke out between security forces and civilians.

CHETRY: And a tragedy for NASA. A space shuttle contract worker fell to his death. He was working on Endeavour's launch pad yesterday. James Vanover, he worked at NASA for 30 years as a swing-arm engineer. His body was found on a different level of the pad. It is not clear how he fell.

NASA, of course, is investigating. They say no hazardous work was being done at the time.

Endeavour is scheduled to blast off on its final mission on April 19th.

ROMANS: All right. The secret's out for the Beckhams. In case, you're all wondering and couldn't wait to find if they're expecting a boy or a girl -- they are expecting a baby girl. Soccer star David Beckham announced the good news at a luncheon in Los Angeles recently. It will be the first time he and wife Victoria can decorate in pink because they already have three sons: Brooklyn, Romeo, and Cruz.

The newest Beckham will make her debut in July.

CHETRY: Where does she put -- where does she put the baby the entire pregnancy? Because she doesn't look like any pregnant woman I know.

ROMANS: I know. You're absolutely right. Her oldest is 12, too.

CHETRY: So, just like you, the fourth time can be a charm. You have three boys.

ROMANS: Kiran, I'm too tired to think about it.

CHETRY: Hey, by the way, just some information coming in right that another earthquake hit Japan, this much smaller magnitude, 6.0, off the coast of Honshu, Japan. This is coming in from the USGS right now. They say it was about 8.8 miles -- the location was 8.8 miles -- about 187 miles northeast of Tokyo. You know aftershocks are expected in this case. And they expect a lot of earthquakes before and after the huge one.

ROMANS: Right. There have been dozens -- I mean, you could just see when you look at the -- you look at the graphic there, you could just see how it's populated the coast over the past week. So, not -- no surprise there are, 6.0 on the scale.

Still to come this morning: Jennifer Delgado is going to tell us more about the morning's travel forecast, right after the break.

CHETRY: And also, escalating levels of radiation in Japan has U.S. nuclear facilities on high alert as well. We're going to give you an inside tour of one of our nation's top radiation organizations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Well, as Japan's nuclear crisis grows, so does the search and rescue effort in some of the areas hardest hit by the earthquake and tsunami. In these situations, getting food, water, and other supplies to those survivors is a huge challenge for the Red Cross and other relief agencies.

ROMANS: Patrick Fuller, a spokesman for the International Red Cross, joins us now from Morioka, Japan, via Skype.

Patrick, tell us -- you say this is nightmarish. This is the worst you've seen in your career in relief. What are the conditions there?

PATRICK FULLER, INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS: Well, it's a scene no one should have to witness. I just returned from a town on the coast called Otsuchi (ph), which was population of 17,000 is now about half of that. Many, many people died in this place.

And the scene is one of frenetic activity basically. The emergency services out there, the civil defense forces are out there, looking for bodies, retrieving bodies. The firefighters are there actually trying to put out fires, which were caused by the multiple gas explosions and fuel explosions that ignited all these debris. And so, the fires have now spread up into the surrounding pine woods, and it really is a scene from hell. You know, we really feel for the survivors. Many of them are camped out in these temporary shelters, and the Japanese Red Cross are doing a phenomenal job with their medical teams in the area going in and giving support to people in these centers.

CHETRY: It just seems like a huge undertaking. You're talking about an island, you know, population of 127 million people. How are they getting those survivors who are not injured but just in need of basic shelter to better places? I mean, are there places where they're able to, at least, try to temporarily live as they try to figure out what's next?

FULLER: Yes, the government has pretty well-oiled system. I mean, they prepare for this kind of event. The scale of this event, I think, has taken everyone by surprise, and it's stretched, you know, resources to the max. They did set up these evacuation centers where people moved to before the tsunami came in, but those have now filled with all these people who are in their homes, but their homes are damaged, so they can't return to them. And it's very distressing.

I was talking to an elderly couple today who are in a state of shock. They'd lost most of their family members, their son, their daughter, their grandchildren, and they had nothing. They were left with absolutely nothing. Their home was gone. So, what do you do? What is the future for people like that?

The government's going to provide them with prefabricated homes, I think, but, you know, they're going to need shelter for quite some time. And one of the most important things people need is really psychological counseling. They've undergone massive trauma.

ROMANS: All right. Patrick Fuller, spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross. Thank you so much and best of luck to you out there. We'll check in with you again soon. Nightmarish scene.

CHETRY: It is. And you hear people like Patrick who have seen so many international disasters describe this as the worst they've ever seen.

ROMANS: You mentioned 127 million people in the country. It's the country in geographic size smaller than California. So, you can imagine just the density, the population density and just the kind of scope of the tragedy as they try to help people and how difficult -- how difficult that must be.

CHETRY: To find out more about the ongoing efforts and how you can help, I know there are a lot of people that want to find out what they can do even in a small way, you can go to our CNN.com/impact. It's our "Impact Your World" page.

Right now, we're going to check in with Jennifer Delgado. Hopefully, you'll be able to give us some more news about the wind direction. They're concerned, of course, because of the radiation, and they want to make sure that this wind continues to blow offshore and not on.

DELGADO: That's right. You know, we'll talk more about that coming up in the next hour, but I can point out to you, by tomorrow, we will see some improvement with the surface winds across parts of Japan. We'll talk a little bit later, but let's look at what's happening right now on the radar.

Some heavy rainfall from the Midwest all the way down towards the southeast, and you can see the rain coming down really heavy right now through parts of Atlanta making for a messy commute out there despite the rain that you're seeing, we're not expecting any delays right now at any of the airports. But notice this, we still have some snow through parts of North and South Dakota. Yes, coming down, but we're only talking about an inch of snowfall.

So, this should not cause you any problems. Of course, you guys are professional when it comes to snow across parts of Dakotas. On the wider view, high pressure's going to start to build back in, but this is our area we're going to be watching today for some showers. You can see about one to two inches of rainfall across parts of the southeast and Midwest, and over towards the west coast, another storm bringing some heavy snowfall through parts of the Cascade Mountains.

Now, I want to leave you with some video coming out of Mississippi. Now, Kiran and Christine, you know it's a bad day when you see this video right here. They were dodging the heavy rainfall from yesterday. Hopefully, we'll get to the shot. You're going to see a man, he's actually kind of got caught off guard. He, obviously, didn't check the weather before he left.

He's actually sitting on his bike and everybody's driving past him and splashing him. Maybe, we'll get to the shot and maybe we won't. It looks like -- there he is. That's when you know you have a bad day. But guess what, Jackson, Mississippi, weather a little bit better today.

CHETRY: Poor thing.

DELGADO: Yes, I know.

ROMANS: Oh, man, can't catch a break.

DELGADO: Can't catch a break.

CHETRY: Thanks, Jennifer.

DELGADO: All right. Take care.

ROMANS: Still ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, in the midst of a nuclear disaster in Japan, we've seen three explosions and a fire. We're on the ground in Japan with the very latest.

CHETRY: Also, right now, the organization in the U.S. that's closely monitoring the fallout from Japan give us an inside look exclusively at what their facility is like, how they track this, and what they say about the growing nuclear crisis in Japan. Fifty minutes past the hour.

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ROMANS: The dangerous situation in Japan's nuclear facility organizations right here in the U.S. keeping a very close eye on those developments.

CHETRY: Our Deb Feyerick had a chance to get an inside look at a facility that is actually tracking Japan's radiation levels. They are among Washington's top advisers and that's a report you'll see only on CNN. It's wonderful that they let you in, especially as they're probably actively trying to figure out what's going on in Japan right now.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And what's so interesting is that we actually happen to be there back in January, and they took us on a tour to show what would happen in the event a nuclear device were to go off. In fact, nobody ever could've anticipated what we're seeing now. So, we really did get that inside look. What this team of scientists is working to do is essentially predict which way the nuclear cloud is going to move, and they're analyzing multiple factors of wind, weather, air pressure.

They're trying to chart the direction of the plume creating a model, which U.S. officials are sharing with the Japanese what could help determine the safest route for people to evacuate.

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FEYERICK (voice-over): With all eyes on Japan's damaged nuclear plant, nuclear scientists, meteorologists and others at Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California are tracking potential radiation leaks and radiological plumes providing critical information to emergency officials in Washington D.C.

GAYLE SUGIYAMA, NATL. ATMOSPHERIC RELEASE ADVISORY CTR.: We respond to a lot of real world incidents such as nuclear power plant accidents, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl.

FEYERICK: Gayle Sugiyama heads up the NARAC program, short for National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center. She described how radiation or radiological plumes move, and now, she and her team tracking forecast the direction they're likely to go,

So when you're charting the directions of the plume, what factors are you taking into consideration?

SUGIYAMA: Just about everything. We have real-time meteorological data that comes into the center. We have the terrain. We have land use, the kind of buildings and structures that are available. So, we use all that information to basically attempt to estimate the impact that occur downwind from the release point.

FEYERICK: How quickly can you track what it is and where it's going?

SUGIYAMA: So, the models will typically run very fast in five to ten minutes, but I should get more and more information. We begin to, basically, get a very close picture to what actually occurred on the ground.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Winds over Japan have been blowing eastward across the pacific to the California Coast. The information from NARAC is vital to federal officials who would decide whether to move people out of any potential danger zone.

SUGIYAMA: Combination of all that information is used by decision makers whether they're emergency responders, firefighters, police departments, state emergency operation centers. The federal government giving advice on where you should take various actions, basically, to protect the public or the environment.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FEYERICK (on-camera): Now, four reactors are at risk. If they fail, something scientists are furiously trying to prevent, you could effectively have four separate events. Four different nuclear clouds each blowing by wind, weather, other factors. Fallout does decay rapidly. Outside the hot zone, hundreds of thousands of lives could possibly be saved simply by people staying indoors. But, again, this is not -- we're not just talking about one potential event. We're talking about four potential events.

ROMANS: I think that's incredibly important to talk about the dispersal. And as the cloud goes across the ocean or goes through the atmosphere, it disperses, falls back into the ocean, falls back to the ground. The closer it is to the actual site is where the most damage is for the environment and for the people.

FEYERICK: And danger now. What everybody is just terrified about is the fact that the wind direction is beginning to change. So, instead of blowing out across the pacific, it looks like it's changing back towards Tokyo. So it's -- it's --

CHETRY: Right. They're telling people to stay -- they evacuated people within 12 miles, 20 miles which, I think, people (ph) to stay inside right now. But again, this situation is still up in the air. That's what so scary. Deb Feyerick, thanks so much.

FEYERICK: Of course.

CHETRY: Fifty-six minutes past the hour. We'll be right back.

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