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Sea Water Assault from Air and Ground; Evacuation Zone in Japan Widened; A Look at the Nuclear Crisis Response; Clinton Says No to Second Term; Friends with Benefits; Gadhafi Forces Make Gains; The Radiation Threat; Wisconsin Budget Protests Cost $$$; NASA To Zap Space Junk; FEMA To Inspect New Jersey Floods
Aired March 17, 2011 - ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Right now on this AMERICAN MORNING, preventing a full scale nuclear meltdown. Japanese military helicopters dumping water onto the Daiichi nuclear plant's damaged reactors.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And as U.S. officials expand the recommended evacuation zone around the nuclear plants to 50 miles, the State Department says that chartered flights will be made available to hundreds of Americans in affected areas.
ROMANS: And a stunning report about prescription drug addiction. It says in one major city, one out of every eight adults is now taking the powerful painkiller oxycodone.
CHETRY: That's right. And also, Tiger Woods talks to Jimmy Fallon. Why the late night host couldn't stop saying thank you to Tiger.
ROMANS: All that straight ahead following every breaking development of what's happening in Japan. Now you've got snow on top of an already complicated and difficult rescue effort following all of that all straight ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Choppers in the air, water cannons on the ground, Japan launches an attack on a crippled nuclear reactor hoping sea water can stop an unfolding nuclear catastrophe on this AMERICAN MORNING.
I'm Christine Romans. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. It's March 17th, St. Patrick's Day in the U.S.
CHETRY: St. Paddy's Day.
ROMANS: That's right. That's right.
CHETRY: And you are -- you are Irish? Right? You are -- that's your background?
ROMANS: Somewhere -- somewhere I'm Irish.
CHETRY: So you are actually -- you have green eyes. You don't have to wear anything green. That's all. ROMANS: I'm Irish.
CHETRY: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us.
Yes, we're following the latest on Japan's nuclear crisis. And the focus this morning is how to get these reactors cool down, specifically reactor number three at Fukushima's Daiichi power station. Right now, Japanese military helicopters are dropping 30 tons of sea water on the crippled reactor's cooling pool. That's where they put the spent fuel rods and they need water. It's vital to keep them cool.
ROMANS: They are also planning to spray it from the ground. Up to a dozen water cannon trucks are in place right now. Meantime, the United States is expanding its own evacuation warning of the area telling Americans to get at least 50 miles away from the reactor.
CHETRY: And there is one more critical development to watch for today. Engineers are planning to begin the process, which is key in this whole thing, of restoring power to the Daiichi complex. They want to bring in external power lines to try to get the plant's cooling system up and running again. Senior international correspondent Stan Grant has been following all of this for us. He has the latest now from Fukushima.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STAN GRANT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The focus today once again has been trying to get these stricken reactors under control to try to bring the heat down. They've now enlisted the use of helicopters. There were four drops of water today before they abandoned that process.
Now they're using water trucks. There was one truck from the police. Another four trucks from the military to pump water in there, again, to try to cool down these reactors, an ongoing effort to try to be able to get in there and sort out what is at the root of this problem, why they are overheating, how much damage is actually being done. At the same time, there is speculation about the radiation levels. Yesterday they were so high that they had to evacuate the workers from the plant. Of course, there are 200,000 people who've been moved from their homes at a 20 kilometer, 12 or 13-mile no-go zone around the plant. Other countries are insisting it should be much wider. It should be around 50 miles.
In Tokyo, people are heading for the exits. They're voting with their feet. They simply do not trust the information they're getting right now. The lines at the airport, the lines at the immigration department are ever, ever longer. Right now, the information coming from the government is the radiation levels are under control, and they're trying their best to grapple with this problem of bringing the reactors down, bringing the heat of the reactors down. The difficulty right now is that the people are just not believing what they're hearing.
Stan Grant, CNN, Tokyo. (END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: More images out today illustrating the power of the tsunami that hit after last week's earthquake. This from a port on Japan's northeast coast. Huge cargo ships tossed on to piers and then left there when the waters receded. Japan's ports sustained major damage, disrupting global supply chains and causing tens of billions of dollars in losses.
On the ground in the disaster zone, snow is falling, temperatures are freezing. Search and rescue crews are equipped for the cold weather but many survivors still lack food, water, blankets and shelter from the bitter cold.
CHETRY: The U.S. government is taking no chances with citizens and troops in Japan. It is now telling all Americans to stay at least 50 miles away from the crippled nuclear reactor in Fukushima. Our foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty is live at the White House this morning with more on what they're recommending to Americans that are in Japan right now.
Hey, Jill.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hey, Kiran. You know, there's been a lot of change so let's go through it.
Late last night, the State Department announcing that they're having what's called a voluntary departure for the families of people who work in three different locations, embassies and consulate and another location in Japan, so that is the U.S. embassy in Tokyo, the consulate in Nagoya and also the FSI, Foreign Service Institute Field School in Yokohama. Those people are being authorized to leave. They're not being forced to leave or ordered to leave. It's voluntary still.
State Department says that it will have charter planes available for those people to leave. It's about 600 if that is necessary. Also, they're saying that those charter planes could be available to Americans in general. And let's talk about Americans in general.
We already know that the State Department is saying Americans should not be traveling to Japan. They should postpone any travel to Japan. They also have expanded that evacuation zone around the crippled nuclear reactor to 50 miles. Now, that's according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission American NRC rules. The Japanese to that point have been saying 20 miles. It's now 50-mile radius. And here is how the chairman of the NRC, Greg Jaczko, explained why they are doing that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREGORY JACZKO, NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION: We took a look at the information that we had and compared it to the actions that we would take here in the United States. As a result of that, we determined that in the United States we would make a recommendation to evacuate personnel to a much larger area than is currently being done in Japan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOUGHERTY: So in other words, right now, Kiran, the U.S. government is saying that Americans should be paying attention to what the U.S. government is saying about that evacuation zone. And finally, we have military families and they, of course, have been told that they can leave as well. There are quite a lot of them, 43,000 family members, dependents in Japan and they're being helped to leave, should they want to go.
CHETRY: All right. And I'm sure, you know, people have differing views but there are many who do want to get out. Jill Dougherty for us this morning, thanks so much.
ROMANS: Airlines are also watching the situation in Japan. There's currently a no-fly zone within 19 miles of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility. Some European airlines have rerouted flights bound for Tokyo which is more than 150 miles from the plant. American Airlines says it is operating normally. Government security officials say no aircraft entering the U.S. has tested positive for radiation.
CHETRY: You know, the scary thing though is that the winds are eventually going to blow whatever is over the atmosphere in Japan closer to the United States.
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: And when we talked to some scientists they said that the amount of radiation in any clouds that come over is going to be vastly reduced by the time it comes over here, but it certainly is scary anyway. And Jennifer Delgado is in the extreme weather center this morning with more on when this cloud or these clouds may make their way over here.
Hey, Jennifer.
JENNIFER DELGADO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Kiran. Hi, Christine.
I want to start off right now just easing everybody's nerves. Right now, we haven't had and we've been dealing with leaks across this place but we haven't been dealing with any ejections.
Now let me show you right now talking about the winds, the winds so very important when we're dealing with the Fukushima Daiichi plant and the radiation that's been leaking. Winds right now coming out of the northwest. That is the offshore flow. That's what we want and we're going to continue to see that as we go through today, tomorrow and even through Saturday. As we start to go through early next week, potentially we could see those winds shifting.
Now take a look at this graphic right here. We're talking about the surface winds. And the winds right now have been very strong because we actually have an area of low pressure that's departing out. And this model is going to start right back in just a second, so you can get a better idea.
Again, you can see how tight they are. Well, this is actually potentially taking some of that radiation up towards the Aleutian Islands, even potentially up towards northeastern portions of Russia. Now keep in mind as you look at this graphic, as we widen up a bit more for you, now look how far away we are from Japan all the way over to the western coastline of the U.S. Well, the problem, as I was saying, because we haven't had an ejection, say like what we saw with the volcano that erupted in Iceland that spread all that ash across parts of Europe, when you're dealing with a leak, we're really talking about more of the surface winds, the lower levels. And the strong winds right now are going to continue to be beneficial for mixing out that radiation. So right now, we don't have to worry about the potential for it actually making to the west coast. But, of course, we're going to be watching that, just the potential to see any changes happen out there.
CHETRY: All right. Jennifer, thanks so much.
ROMANS: Meanwhile, Japanese engineers still scrambling to contain these damaged reactors. Are their efforts doing any good? What progress have they made? Coming up next, we're going to talk to a U.S. engineer who took part in the cleanup on Three Mile Island.
CHETRY: And is there another race in Hillary Clinton's future in 2012 or 2016? She talks exclusively to our Wolf Blitzer coming up.
ROMANS: And wrestling back power. Moammar Gadhafi gaining ground in the battle for Libya as the world turns its attention to the crisis in Japan. The latest on the bloody civil war ahead.
It's nine minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 12 minutes past the hour right now. And we're continuing to watch as developments continue in the nuclear situation in Japan. We saw those water drops, helicopters trying to cool down some of the reactors at the plant.
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: Engineers at the Fukushima plant are hoping to avoid full meltdown. That's been the goal obviously this whole time and get things back on track.
Right now, though, as we talked about four out of the six plants have had some sort of explosion, hydrogen explosion within them as engineers try to cool the reactors and to make sure that radiation levels don't spike.
ROMANS: And there are fires elsewhere in the spent fuel rod pools and it's just been a really difficult situation this morning. As we said, military helicopters dumping sea water on the plant. Those efforts failed. Right now, trucks are on standby with water cannons to spray directly into the reactors.
Lake Barrett is a nuclear engineer who oversaw the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's response to the Three Mile Island accident in the U.S., something that's actually an accident but is almost mystical in the minds of many Americans who remember that and how scary that was.
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: He joins us now live.
Welcome to the program. I want to start with the spent fuel pools, I mean, where these fuel rods are kept within the facility. We know they've been trying to get water on those and actually there's some difference of opinion between the Americans and the Japanese about how dangerous that situation is. Explain to us why that's important, those spent fuel rod pools.
LAKE BARRETT, NUCLEAR ENGINEER: Well, it's very important because they are exposed to the environment right now because they had hydrogen explosions that blew the roofs off the areas of the pool and there's highly radioactive material in the spent fuel in those pools. And apparently due to some fault in either the structure or through the explosions in the past, the water has been reduced in levels in those pools, such that the fuel is likely overheating and causing some radioactive releases which make very high radiation levels in the localized area.
CHETRY: And so, it's interesting that we're bringing you on to talk about this because Three Mile Island happened back in 1979. And just for people that don't remember what happened, it was a partial meltdown after water that was meant to cool the uranium fuel was released right from the containment chamber because of equipment malfunction. But the bottom line is many people say that even though, as Christine said, has mystical status in terms of stoking fears about nuclear plants, no one died in this accident, and most people were exposed to what now we say was the equivalent of a chest x-ray. As you take a look at what's happening now in Japan at the Fukushima plant, how does this compare?
BARRETT: Well, there's many similarities but the situation in Fukushima is much larger. There are three reactors involved as opposed to one. There's two spent fuel pools involved. We didn't have a spent fuel pool at Three Mile Island. The containment at Three Mile Island was not breached in any way. So Three Mile Island was a much simpler situation although it was very serious, this one is more serious.
ROMANS: Using water cannons to try to get water in the pools, the helicopters, in your mind, are they doing the right things right now to try to address this?
BARRETT: It seems to me they are. They're doing everything they can to bring cooling to that, to - to reduce the energy and disperse the energy and to reduce the releases that are going into the environment.
So it seems to me that TEPCO operators are doing a - a heroic job in very difficult circumstances they're working in.
ROMANS: Sure (ph).
CHETRY: There can be (INAUDIBLE) - yes, you call it a heroic job. I mean, this 180 people that they're cycling in and out in groups of 50 are basically on a suicide mission, as - they're doing this for, you know, the - the national good, to try to stem an even bigger disaster. But, by all accounts, they likely will die.
In Chernobyl, the people that were left behind, I believe, many of them died within three months because of the high levels of radiation that they were exposed to. I mean, that is a terrifying thought in a - in and of itself.
I mean, are there other fail safes in place at these nuclear plants so that if something like this happened, workers didn't have to give their lives to prevent it?
BARRETT: Well, I don't agree with a lot of what you just said about suicide missions and that sort of thing. I don't think it is - is of that severity. I think the - these are trained nuclear technicians that are working in that plant and I think they know what they're doing, so I would not refer to this as suicidal at all.
There are many safeguards that are there in place. What happened here is an - a phenomenal natural disaster with this huge tsunami that took out all the electrical systems and took all these - the safety systems that were basically there.
So they're working very hard to do it and it is not suicidal. Yesterday's -
CHETRY: So you think they're going to survive this? You think that after they get this taken care of, if they finally get the water back running, that the people that are in there right now are going to live out their lives?
BARRETT: I believe they will. Yes, I do. I mean, there's going to be a higher risk of cancer probably for these people, but I think it's going to be a statistical analysis kind of thing. I don't believe there's going to be any acute radiation sickness situation with these operators. But with all radiation, you want to reduce your risk and reduce your exposures as much as you can.
ROMANS: All right. Lake Barrett, thank you so much for joining us. You know, your point of view is - is interesting because of the Three Mile Island incident and the parallels that you see there.
Thanks so much.
CHETRY: Absolutely. Thanks.
ROMANS: OK. You can -
BARRETT: You're welcome.
ROMANS: -- find out how you can help cleanup efforts in Japan. Visit our Impact Your World webpage at CNN.com/impact.
CHETRY: Well, tune in to "AC 360" tonight, 10:00 Eastern, Anderson Cooper live in Japan with the latest on the recovery. Also ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, Hillary Clinton talks about her plans for 2012 and perhaps for 2016 and what does she have in store for herself in the future? Well, we'll hear what she told Wolf Blitzer, coming up.
ROMANS: And President Obama has filled out his bracket. He's going with the red state to win it all, but that's still not making Republicans happy. Find out his final four picks ahead.
It's 17 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: OK, she wouldn't run against him, but she wouldn't be working for him again.
Our Wolf Blitzer sat down with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her trip through the Middle East in North Africa and he asked her what her plans are for 2012.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE) political. If the president is reelected, do you want to serve a second term as Secretary of State?
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: No.
BLITZER: Would you like to serve as Secretary of Defense?
CLINTON: No.
BLITZER: Would you like to be vice president of the United States?
CLINTON: No.
BLITZER: Would you like to be president of the United States?
CLINTON: No.
BLITZER: Why not?
CLINTON: Because I have the best job I could ever have. This is a moment in history where it is almost hard to catch your breath. There are both the - the tragedies and disasters that we have seen from - from Haiti to Japan and there are the extraordinary opportunities and challenges that we see right here in Egypt and in the rest of the region.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: She's also said no to a possible run in 2016 as well. She's clearly ruled out more government service right after this.
CHETRY: Yes. That's the beautiful thing about a mind, though. You can always change it. ROMANS: And we know no one took that question (ph).
CHETRY: 2016 is a long way off.
Well, Michelle Obama planted her spring garden yesterday. Now she's writing a book about it. The First Lady had signed a book deal to write about her "Let's Move" campaign, and you remember, a big part of that was her garden, her White House garden.
ROMANS: That's right.
CHETRY: An effort to end childhood obesity through diet and exercise.
It's expected to be out next year. The publisher says that the First Lady will donate all of the money that she makes from the sale of the book to charity.
ROMANS: I'd like to do this but I have a deer problem. I can't -
CHETRY: Oh, they love it.
ROMANS: Nothing's going to grow.
He really went out on a limb yesterday. President Obama filled out his -
CHETRY: There is something - I can't remember what it is, marigolds or something.
ROMANS: Maybe, but you can't put the - well, maybe you can put those out (ph).
OK, he's filled out his NCAA tournament -
CHETRY: (INAUDIBLE) for the deer.
ROMANS: -- tournament bracket. The president has all the top seeds advance into the final four. Three of the four are located in swing states, but who did he - who did he pick to win it all?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you go with Kansas after last year?
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: After last year - look, here's what happened. I picked North Carolina. They lost. The next year, they won for me. I think Kansas is going to do the same thing.
They always feel bad about losing when the president picks them. They're going to go all the way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have any other (INAUDIBLE)?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The president also picked the Jayhawks last year and lost, but in 2009 he nailed it with North Carolina.
Republicans are - are going after his appearance on ESPN, saying he should be focusing on more pressing issues.
CHETRY: Well. I mean, every year the president fills out the bracket, right? George W. Bush did it, too.
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: Oh, by the way, I think I picked Pittsburgh to go all the way. Who would - who did you pick, Ohio State? Because -
ROMANS: I - Kiran, you know I don't pick any - you have to help me fill it out. You have to help me fill it out. I told you, I could pick an entire stock portfolio -
CHETRY: Yes.
ROMANS: -- but I could not pick out brackets.
CHETRY: OK, you do that for me and I'll fill out your bracket -
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Fantastic.
CHETRY: Well, if you can't graduate, you shouldn't go to the dance. That's what they're saying.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan tells "USA Today" that schools should have to graduate at least half of their basketball players or they shouldn't be able to compete in the NCAA tournament. Now, if that rule were in place today, three women's teams and 10 men's teams would already be out.
Arne Duncan was captain of the Harvard Basketball Team and an academic All-American back in 1987.
ROMANS: Interesting.
CHETRY: Yes. I mean, they also said something like I think 43 percent of the revenue that's generated from NCAA is from schools that don't graduate half - 50 percent of their players.
Well, let's make a deal. Just about anywhere, Facebook now launching its own version of Groupon, and Carmen - Carmen Wong-Ulrich - I was going to say Carmen (INAUDIBLE). That would have been great - is here, "Minding Your Business."
Nice to see you this morning.
(CROSSTALK)
CARMEN WONG ULRICH, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, ladies.
I do not pay retail. Just so you know. CHETRY: (INAUDIBLE)
ULRICH: I'm loving this stuff.
This is the Groupon effect, folks catching on here. Facebook announced yesterday a new Deals page is going to be up and running soon. It's launching in five test cities and it's a fairly direct challenge to Groupon, which is, you know, evaluated right now at $15 billion.
Facebook Deals first launched with a local location-based deal. If you know Foursquare and how that works. That was back in November. Now, you can join with your friends to get local discounts together.
Now, the new page if you go there to Facebook.com/deals, says coming soon. Deals are about to get better with friends. We'll keep an eye on that.
If you're in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco, you get to check it out, and I'm a little bit jealous.
And Gap has joined in all this deal-making via Facebook. It's a little sprinkle of eBay. Yesterday they began a promo of Gapmyprice.com on its Facebook page. Name your price for a pair of men's khakis. It was a one day deal.
So how much can you save? Well, the khakis retail for $49.50. The offers are between $35 and $45. Yesterday we got $45, so we saved a little bit of money. We saved on shipping.
Deal space here, it's all getting more creative. It is just going to ramp up and I think it's good for us.
ROMANS: I think it's good for us, too. It must be driving retailers crazy.
ULRICH: It drives them a little nuts.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: They have to move fast. They have to move fast there -
ULRICH: (INAUDIBLE).
ROMANS: And it could squeeze their margins a little bit. I mean, if I'm going to be able to get those khakis cheaper, why - you know?
ULRICH: Quite a bit. The - with the - with the Groupon thing, especially for small retailers, they're saying this is (INAUDIBLE) not exactly making money, but it gets bodies in. So this is also marketing for them.
ROMANS: Right. If you're a small business it's great, so you figure out how to get into this -
CHETRY: They also - they're also putting - I mean, some businesses are finding themselves making different choices because of Groupon. So when I bought from a - a Groupon about getting a - a picture made, they said, well our Groupon users, you're experiencing a two-week - you know, a two-week delay, meaning that they're going to get their full priced customers out there first.
My friend went to get a massage, and they're like we don't have the Groupon masseuse here today. Sorry.
ULRICH: The Groupon masseuse.
CHETRY: Yes.
ULRICH: There's a special Groupon -
CHETRY: Right.
ULRICH: Do you want the Groupon masseuse?
CHETRY: I don't know. I don't know.
ULRICH: (INAUDIBLE).
CHETRY: So that's - that's - I mean -
ULRICH: Do you want to be in the Groupon masseuse? I don't - all right.
ROMANS: Thanks, Carmen.
ULRICH: You're welcome.
ROMANS: Up next, the - the latest on the nuclear crisis in Japan, including a new warning to Americans who may be in harm's way.
CHETRY: We're also following the latest developments on Libya, the envoy to Libya now warning that Gadhafi may commit genocide, slaughtering his own people in an effort to hang on to power. But will the world respond?
We're live in Libya next.
It's 27 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: We're crossing the half hour right now. We want to bring you up to date on what's going on in Japan.
Right now officials there are still hoping that this sea water drop that they're doing, just dropping a ton of sea water onto the - the plant, can actually stop this nuclear disaster from escalating into a full scale catastrophe. These military choppers have already dropped 30 tons of ocean water on the cooling pool -- this is where they try to cool the spent fuel rods at reactor number three.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And water cannons are now on the ground at the crippled Daiichi power station. Engineers are also hoping to bring power using outside lines to get the facility's cooling system up and running again. This has been a chronic problem since the tsunami.
The United States is breaking with Japan as well, warning all Americans to get at least 50 miles away from that plant, a sign the situation could be more dire perhaps than Japanese officials are admitting.
CHETRY: And so, a lot of the world's focus right now is on the desperate situation in Japan, but in Libya, the dictator, Moammar Gadhafi, is taking the opportunity it appears to try to brutality take back his country. The Libyan envoy to the U.N. is warning that Gadhafi may commit genocide and he's actually stepping up air strikes on his own people.
There's some new video showing a rocket-propelled grenade attack on opposition forces. This is in the city of Ras Lanuf. Rebels were preparing anti-aircraft guns at the time.
With the Arab League is calling for a no-fly zone over Libya, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told our Wolf Blitzer that there is new pressure on the world to act.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: He is moving ahead, and so is the international community. There is a greater urgency and intensive effort in reaction to the Arab League statement on Saturday, and what we're seeing in New York right now is intensive negotiations over what the international community could agree to that would protect innocent people in Libya and try to prevent Gadhafi from wreaking havoc, murder and mayhem on his own people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: So, now, both sides are bracing for what could be the most bloody battle of them all in Libya's second largest city, Benghazi.
Arwa Damon is live for us there right now.
What is the latest, Arwa?
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, the situation in Benghazi itself appears to be calm at this point in time.
In time, we are hearing reports of ongoing shelling in Ajdabiya, some 100 miles to the west of here. That is where the fighting appears to be concentrated over the last few days. There have been multiple reports of air strikes and intense artillery points. Sniper positions -- pro-Gadhafi sniper positions in that city a growing sense of concern and alarm here amongst the opposition, especially given the slow pace that the international community is moving at in terms of trying to implement some sort of a no-fly zone or protective measures.
Secretary Clinton might be talking about an upped pace of negotiations but for people here, they feel as if that is crawling along at their own expense. There's a lot of talk about saving innocent lives, but the opposition will tell you that innocent lives are being lost here every day as the international community continues to debate what needs to be done. The entire city right now is bracing itself for what is expected to be an ongoing onslaught as we do see Colonel Gadhafi literally appearing to be bombing eastern Libya into submission -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Arwa Damon for us -- calm where you are. But again not far away, in the area that you talked about, Ajdabiya, they are dealing with airstrikes and pro-Gadhafi snipers. We're going to continue to follow this situation in Libya. Thanks so much, Arwa.
ROMANS: There's a new development this morning in the month-long uprising in Bahrain. Authorities there now detained at least five prominent opposition activists, a further sign the government is trying to silence descent rather than open any kind dialogue. Bahrain has imposed a three-month emergency that gives the military wide power to battle the pro-democracy uprising.
CHETRY: And up next: the radiation scare in Japan. U.S. officials are now weighing in on the issue, warning Americans to move at least 50 miles away from the Daiichi power plant.
Sanjay Gupta is live in Tokyo. We're going to check in with him with more on what they're recommending and what it is like there now.
ROMANS: And a nuclear power plant on top of dual fault lines -- just a short drive from New York City -- new fears that it may not be worth the risk because of what's happening right now in Japan. We're going to show the reactors that have people worried at home the most.
It's 34 past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Thirty-eight minutes past the hour right now.
Japan is trying to prevent a total meltdown as we know at their Daiichi plant. "The Daily Beast" Web site compiled, though, a list of where we're most vulnerable here in the United States based on safety records and the potential for disasters. And we just wanted to show where our nuclear plants are here in America.
And you see, we have many of them. But we want to show you the ones that were listed as perhaps the most vulnerable.
And the first one, number three on the list, is the Limerick nuclear power plant. This is in Pennsylvania, about 21 miles northwest of Philadelphia. And the deal is here in Limerick, Pennsylvania, is that basically you have about nearly 8 million people that live within 50 miles of this plant.
Number two is California. This is the San Onofre nuclear power plant. Here again, this sits between Los Angeles and San Diego. And there you have almost 9.5 million people living within 50 miles of the plant. A lot of the risk assessment was just on how big of a population is near there and would have to evacuate if there was a problem.
And just like the plant facing possible meltdown in Japan, this one sits, of course, on an open coastline near active fault lines, built, though, to withstand a 7.0 magnitude quake.
And perhaps the most vulnerable plant, at least is Indian Point energy center. This is in Buchanan, New York, Westchester County. One of the reasons why is just how close it is to the city of New York, just 24 miles north of the city. And here you have population center only 50 miles away from about 17.5 million people.
Scientists say it sits near intersecting fault lines, but that a major quake is not likely in this area.
Again, though, the biggest concern and the biggest vulnerability is that if there was any meltdown at Indian Point, 17 million people in the surrounding area could be in danger.
Now, speaking of Indian Point, it has two reactors, and they provide as much as a third of the power for New York City and its northern suburbs. But Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York has now ordered a safety review of the site, saying that we may have to get that power from somewhere else.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: I understand the power and the benefit. I also understand the risk. And this plant in this proximity to New York city was never a good risk.
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CHETRY: Now, the company that operates Indian Point says it was built to withstand a larger earthquake than one the region has never seen. But, again, the biggest concern is that there are 17 million people living in the near vicinity, the 50-mile vicinity that perhaps or theoretically may have to evacuate.
ROMANS: All right. The United States is breaking with the Japanese and warning all Americans to get at least 50 miles away from the crippled Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima, suggesting the nuclear crisis there may be worse than Japanese officials are letting on, that's the concern, at least.
CHETRY: Yes. And our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is in Tokyo. He joins us live.
So, you're talking about more than 100 workers I believe. Some reports are about 180 rotating on the site at the Daiichi power station. And there are differences of opinion among the experts as to how much danger they're in.
But at what point does the best protective gear fail to keep them safe?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there is a lot of conflicting information with those evacuation zones. I mean, that's a good example because people are dealing with limited information, certainly outside the plant and inside the plant as well. You know, when you're talking about some of the most dangerous types of radiation no matter what kind of gear you have, the gamma radiation we're talking about that can penetrate just about anything.
I mean, people carry around certain devices to sort of give them an idea of whether they've been contaminated and also do surveillance on themselves to find out if, in fact, there's radioactivity. And they also were certain types of devices like a respirator. They hear a hazmat suit, something like this. But again when you're talking about the most dangerous forms of ionizing radiation, there's just very little you can do besides getting behind some sort of real barrier.
You've heard about this, this back-and-forth on whether there is water in one of these containment tanks surrounding some of the spent fuel rods. They don't quite know the answer to that even though it's in the plant because they can't get close enough to this to actually evaluate that particular pond.
So, you get an idea, these people are walking around in these hazmat suits, respirators. There's no electricity in there, so they're doing this by dark or by flashlight, and putting out explosions, putting out fires, trying to turn valves and trying to assess the plant -- all at the same time with probably very high levels of radiation compared to the outside that they're being exposed to.
So, it's a remarkable, unbelievable situation for them.
ROMANS: Sanjay, right now, NHK, the Japanese broadcaster, NHK, is reporting that they've withdrawn water cannon from the site. They were trying to get water with the water cannon to the number three reactor.
And they've withdrawn that, according to NHK, because of high radiation levels -- exactly what you're talking about -- that is sort of impeding what they're trying to do.
The U.S. government meantime is telling citizens to evacuate 50 miles away from this plant.
Sanjay, what dangers exist for people still inside that 50-mile zone?
GUPTA: Well, you know, what we talk about are acute radiation sickness as sort of a primary thing and that's, you know, someone who is just exposed to high levels of radiation can get symptoms very quickly if the levels are high enough. It affects all the various cells in the body that are dividing rapidly. So, someone gets nauseated, they may vomit and they have bleeding from their intestines, their hair falls out, their skin starts to have rashes -- all those types. That's the acute radiation sickness that we're talking about. Now, when you're talking about these water cannons, Christine, they're further away. These people are in vehicles. They are sort of squirting the water at the spent fuel rods and they're worried about those people that far away.
Again, imagine what it's like for these, you know, 180-some people inside the plant. We don't know what the levels are inside. They've been raising what they think is the acceptable safe level. But, you know, a lot of this is still very uncertain and we're just not getting a lot of information about what those people are going through right now as they're trying to essentially salvage the safety of this plant.
CHETRY: Yes. I mean, it's a -- it's a really scary situation to think about. And, you know, whether or not -- I mean, eventually, hopefully this will be successful but at what cost? Boy, it's tough.
Sanjay, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
GUPTA: Thank you.
ROMANS: OK. Still to come this morning, a big warm-up for the Northeast, but that Northeast warm-up is not going to last very well. We'll take it, though. Jennifer Delgado will have the morning's travel forecast right after the break.
CHETRY: Also, Tiger Woods made an appearance on late night, the first since the sex scandal. He appeared on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" and we'll why the comedian couldn't stop thanking him.
It's 44 minutes past the hour.
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ROMANS: All right. It's 42 degrees outside in New York City. Later, it's going to go up to 60. it's going to be a nice day for any travelers in (INAUDIBLE)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Which you Irish men call --
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CHETRY: But boy, 60 degrees in New York, and St. Patrick's Day, look out if you're riding the subways today, folks. People are probably just bursting at the seam to get out there and party.
It is estimated it's going to cost about $350,000 to clean up Wisconsin State capital after, of course, several weeks of demonstrations by union protesters when they were camping out there for 24 hours at a time. Substantially, lower, though, than a previous estimate which put it at 7.5 million. The new figure accounts for costs such as interior and landscape restorations, some argue that the number is still too high. They say that protests really cost little damage.
ROMANS: And left hundreds of pizza boxes.
CHETRY: Absolutely.
ROMANS: Now, it's like planning to zap space junks with lasers. It may sound like fantasy, but scientists say the junk could cause serious problems. You know, the space junk is floating around the earth. Pieces can collide with satellites or the international space station. Scientists say the lasers will not destroy the junk. They'll flow the pieces down, push them on to a different course.
CHETRY: It's pretty cool. It's like playing real life asteroids.
ROMANS: It's cool once you have a multibillion-dollar satellite, and you're very worried about all these communications --
CHETRY: Yes. We know how to clog everything. Right now, it wasn't enough on earth. So, now, it's out there in the atmosphere.
ROMANS: We pollute the earth and then we keep polluting as far as we can.
CHETRY: Yes.
FEMA officials are headed to New Jersey to inspect flood damage in the sate. The flooding from the Passaic River continues to threaten the area. Last year, Passaic County received $50 million in federal aid because they had the same thing happen. A county resident says they're hoping to receive additional funding for the post flood cleanup.
ROMANS: All right. It's about 10 minutes to the top of the hour. There's going to be a warm up through the south and to the Midwest today. We've been telling you about this nice weather expecting in the Midwest. Get a quick check on the morning's weather headlines with Jennifer Delgado in the Extreme Weather Center. Good morning, Jennifer.
JENNIFER DELGADO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Christine. Good morning, Kiran. And you just mentioned the flooding that was happening across parts of New Jersey. I'm happy to report that the Passaic River actually going down to minor flood stage and more good news. Notice how quiet it is across the northeast, that storm system out of here, and really, a good portion of the U.S. Nice and quiet.
However, we are watching out towards the Pacific Northwest. We have been dealing with heavy rain really over about the last month through parts of Oregon, and we're going to have (ph) some video coming out of California. This is out of Big Sur, and once again, look at this incredible video of a mud slide that happened there, and we're talking heavy rainfall. When the ground gets so weak, of course, it starts to collapse.
Certainly, this is going to be danger because we have more storm systems that are going to be pushing through as we go through the upcoming weekend. So, I take you back over, you can see some light rain, but we're also going to be dealing with some snow right along the mountains. Another area we're watching, the upper Midwest. You can see just a little bit of light rain there, but we do have a flood watch in place for parts of the Dakotas.
Of course, we're watching that because we don't want temperatures to warm up too quickly because, of course, we'll be dealing with that snow melt and that could potentially lead to more flooding problems. And finally, I want to show you the good news for today. Temperatures, as I said, 10 to 20 degrees above average all the way down toward the south, up towards areas including the Midwest and spreading over towards the southeast, but it gets better.
Look at these numbers right here. We're talking 70s and 80s, some of the warmest temperatures we've seen since last fall. Now, finally, I can't leave you without a little St. Patrick's Day little forecast, and you can see overall lots of sunshine in place. I know that St. Patty's Day parade is going to be happening today at 11:00 a.m.
I don't know if Kiran or Christine are going to be taking their little ones out there to check this out. But, wait a minute (ph) and I think about it, he has to be in school, but the weather will be nice.
CHETRY: I'll be scared to --
DELGADO: Temperatures will be in the 50s right around parade time, moving up to 65.
ROMANS: I'm enough of a New Yorker to notice day clear (ph).
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: Thanks, Jennifer.
DELGADO: All right, guys.
CHETRY: All right. Your "A.M. House Call." Fewer Americans are dying. Good news. The Center for Disease Control says the death rate in the U.S. dropped to an all-time low in 2009, down 2.3 percent from the year before. Deaths from heart disease, the top cause, we're down almost 4 percent and a big drop in homicides as well, homicides down almost 7 percent.
ROMANS: Startling statistics out of New York City point to a prescription drug abuse epidemic. A city prosecutor says the number of prescriptions filled for oxycodone, that's the generic name for Oxycontin, the number of prescriptions doubled over the past three years to one million. That's one out of every 8 people in New York City taking a highly addictive opium-based pain-killer. At least, that many prescription is being written.
CHETRY: That's right.
ROMANS: It shows you there's a big demand for that legal drug.
CHETRY: Yes. Top stories just minutes away including trying to prevent a total meltdown, the massive effort going on right now to cool the nuclear plant in Japan. We're live with the very latest.
ROMANS: And what your thumbs up is worth to a company. The real world value of a Facebook "like." It's 51 minutes past the hour.
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ROMANS: OK. So, secrets of Tyra Banks has been keeping since last summer. The model turned mogul has been attending Harvard Business School. She' enrolled in a three-year program. Banks says part of the reason she decided to go back to school is because she dropped out of college when she was 17 to pursue modeling, and now some 20 years later, she wants to get an MBA.
CHETRY: And boy, she went for the big one, right? I mean, Harvard Business School.
ROMANS: I guess so.
CHETRY: Good for her.
Some college bound student who took the SATs this past weekend were given an unusual essay question asking if reality TV is really harmful, is harmful. Officials say that the goal was to give students a chance to demonstrate their writing skills, but some test takers say that the question was unfair because they didn't have time to watch reality TV because they were too busy studying for the SATs. There's irony for you.
ROMANS: There is irony. All right. We're going to have top stories for you coming your way right after the break. We got about four minutes to the top of the hour.
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ROMANS (voice-over): Happening now, Americans evacuating, the state department coordinating charter flights to get American citizens out of Japan.
Also, an agency at the United Nations saying winds could bring the radiation to the United States by tomorrow. We're tracking how dangerous it really is on this AMERICAN MORNING.
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