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American Morning
Clinton Heading Into the Hot Spots; Monitoring Programs That Save Money for Insurers; A Look at the Most Vulnerable Nuke Plants; The Radiation Threat; Nuclear Cooling Attempt Failed; Duncan's March Madness Message; Energy Drink Sales Jump; The President's NCAA Picks: Fear of Radiation Danger
Aired March 17, 2011 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Good morning. It's Thursday. March 17th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Christine Romans.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Happy St. Patrick's Day to you. We are following a lot of breaking news this morning, including the massive efforts that are taking place right now to prevent further disaster in Japan, an ongoing effort there. What you're seeing is a helicopter dropping tons of water trying to cool the nuclear power plant, dropping water into the towers. We're live in Japan with the very latest on these efforts.
ROMANS: Also, we're closely watching nuclear plants here at home, which was the most vulnerable if a quake should strike this country. We're going to go in-depth this hour where you live.
CHETRY: First, though, the U.S. government now taking action to help Americans evacuate the disaster zone in Japan. Tokyo's airport is still packed with people trying to get out of the country. The U.S. State Department says it's now chartering planes for family members of its staff and other Americans who need help getting home.
Our foreign affairs correspondent, Jill Dougherty, is live at the White House this morning with more on this. How are they working this? I mean, how do you get one of this charter flights?
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, right now, they've got this authorized departure for -- it's a voluntary departure for the members of families that come from the embassy. There are three locations that are affected right now. It's the U.S. embassy in Tokyo, the consulate in Nagoya, and also, the Foreign Service Institute Field School in Yokohama.
So, they're being told locations that they can go. Most of these charters will be going from Tokyo, as you can imagine. So, they will make provisions in some fashion to get people to that location, and also, according to the state department, they're also making, if necessary, those charters available to Americans who are in this evacuation zone, and I'll talk about that in a second around the crippled nuclear plant.
So, it is difficult to get out, as you said, at the airport. And that's the second thing. What should Americans, in general, who are in Japan do? As we know already, for days they've been saying do not travel. Anybody outside, do not travel to Japan. Defer any type of travel.
The other thing is that evacuation zone that the Japanese already had around the crippled nuclear plant, the U.S. is now saying that they are expanding that. It's 50 miles from the center of that plant out, and the Japanese up until recently are still saying 12 miles, so the Americans are being more cautious.
And here is how the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission explained why that discrepancy.
(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: And also last night, late last night president Obama called the prime minister of Japan, Prime Minister Kan, told him the U.S. is standing with Japan. And he also talked about military assets, specialized people, experts in radiation and dealing with the effects of radiation.
CHETRY: All right, Jill Dougherty for us this morning, thanks so much.
ROMANS: Here is the latest on the Daiichi power station in Fukushima. Japanese military helicopters dropped 30 tons of water into the cooling pool in reactor number three. And engineers are planning to bring in extra power lines today, hoping to fire up the facility's cooling system.
Since the earthquake and tsunami hit last week officials say there's been a hydrogen explosion at number one reactor, a possible containment damage at reactor number two, and there's a strong possibility of a structure tear at reactor three causing a radioactive release. There was also an explosion and two fires at reactor four that forced workers to evacuate earlier in the week.
Emergency crews temporarily withdrew a water cannon at the Daiichi nuclear power plant because of high radiation levels. CNN senior international correspondent Stan Grant is live in Tokyo. Hi, Stan. Clearly this is a setback at least temporarily as they pull that water cannon back because they are concerned about the high radiation levels there.
STAN GRANT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this has been fairly constant. Yesterday they tried to get the helicopters in to drop water. They aborted that because of the radiation levels. It is more precautionary, I must say. They're reporting here the nuclear safety agencies the levels are at a level not going to be any risk to humans, in fact they rise and drop very quickly. But they don't want to expose anyone to unnecessary risk.
The army is in there with five water trucks working as I speak. They made the point none of their soldiers ought to be getting out and putting themselves in any unnecessary risk at all. They're trying to cool down the reactors. They're also trying to get side power source which would allow them to get the cooling system moving in, if they can do that they may be able to bring this under control relatively quickly or in a much quicker fashion than they are at the moment.
We are getting a report from the nuclear safety agency that reactor number one is relatively stable, reactor number five and also number six also considered to be relatively stable. We do have these problems in numbers three and four, especially these exposed spent fuel rods, if they are exposed, in the pool of water. There is debate how much water is in there. That's where the real danger apparently lies.
ROMANS: There seems to be a debate about it, lots of details of what's going on there. It's almost very hard to follow really because we're trying to figure out where is the most serious danger and what is being done about it. American authorities are saying 50 miles is what they'd like to see Americans evacuated to. Stan, thank you so much, Stan.
CHETRY: Radioactive radiation plumes are making their way over the Pacific Ocean this morning, and here is a forecast for when it's coming to the United States. An arm of the United Nations said it could hit southern California by Friday. However, health and nuclear experts say when it does, levels will be low.
Jennifer Delgado is in the weather center with details. Obviously they're going to test when it happens to see how big of a threat it is but a lot of people are scared.
JENNIFER DELGADO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. A lot are people are worried. First of all we want to talk about what's happening with Japan. Right now the winds are coming out of the northwest, that's an offshore flow, great news, helping to mix the radiation, the particles and the lower levels. And Friday into Saturday it's going to be offshore.
Now as I take you over, I want to go to the other graphic and show you how we're projecting this air to move. As we go through the next several days now, as I show you on our Google earth, this is the Fukushima Daiichi plant with the winds coming from the northwest. That is going to be pushing the air particles offshore.
We're taking this 48 hours out. If we want to go farther out for you in this graphic, this is the area of low pressure that's causing the strong winds through parts of Japan. Notice how it's going to be moving. As we go through the next several days, we could potentially see possibility some of that making its way up towards the Aleutian Islands as well as northeastern parts of Russia.
But for the possibility of it making it from Japan over to the western coastline of the U.S., right now not that great because we haven't had an explosion at the plant. We've been dealing with leaks so that means we're dealing with the particle action and the surface winds. With the winds being gusty that is helping to mix it out and with wind patterns being active we're talking with this area of low pressure moving through that's also making the atmospheric conditions even better as well. So we'll send it back over to you, Kiran and Christine.
CHETRY: Thanks so much, Jennifer. Coming up in 20 minutes we'll be back in Tokyo on a special live report on the growing radiation threat. We'll check in with CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the radiation risk coming in about 25 minutes here in "AMERICAN MORNING."
ROMANS: The house is scheduled to vote today on a bill to pull National Public Radio's government funding. This move comes after a conservative activist secretly taped NPR executive Ron Schiller criticizing the Tea Party and saying NPR would be better off without federal money.
CHETRY: Texas is now a step closer to allowing handguns on college campuses. The state's legislature is considering a bill to get licensed gun owners, allowing them to carry weapons on school grounds. Students, teachers, and police argue whether guns would make college campuses safer are or more dangerous.
ROMANS: Part of a California highway closed today after a 40-foot section of pavement fell into the Pacific Ocean. Drivers on highway one near Big Sur had to leave their cars and walk to safety. No word on what caused the road to crumble.
CHETRY: Mexico admitted the U.S. military deploys unmanned drones over its territory in an effort to combat drug trafficking. According to "The New York Times," intelligence gathered in drone flights is what led to the capture of several suspects in last month's murder of a U.S. immigration agent in Mexico.
ROMANS: Americans are living longer than ever before. The Centers for Disease Control says a baby born in 2009 has a life expectancy of 78 years and two months. There's a gap between the sexes. For men life expectancy is 75.5 and for women, it's 80.5 years. I have to save more money.
CHETRY: Isn't that sad that's what we think of now?
If you want to save money on your insurance let your insurance company monitor how you drive. Would you do it if you meant lower premiums?
ROMANS: Assuming you're a good driver.
What are Hillary Clinton's plans for 2012, should she keep her current job or go for a promotion? What she told Wolf Blitzer. It is eight minutes past the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: With the world now focused on the desperate situation in Japan, Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi is taking the opportunity to try to brutally take back his own country. A Libyan envoy is the U.N. is warning Gadhafi may commit genocide, and he's stepping up airstrikes on his own people.
This is new video showing a rocket were propelled grenade attack on rebels forces in the city of Ras Lanuf. The rebels are preparing anti-aircraft guns at the time, both sides now bracing for what could be the most bloody battle of all of them in Libya's second largest city of Benghazi.
Four journalists in the middle of the fighting in Libya have now disappeared. They all work for the "New York times." Reporters Anthony Shadid and Stephen Farrell and photographers Tyler Hicks and Lyndsey Addario. The paper received information they were picked up by government forces near Ajdabiay. Last night columnist Tom Friedman talked about his colleagues and the risks they took to get the real story out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM FRIEDMAN, "NEW YORK TIMES" COLUMNIST: I was just in Cairo working with some of them. They were caught up it seems in the most dangerous kind of battlefield situation you can be in covering a battle in a town that was changing sides between rebel forces and government forces, and you can only hope they're either incommunicado, that they're safe or in the hands of people who are going to look after them and release them soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Libyan government forces have no information where the journalists might be but if they were picked up by the Libyan military they would be returned to Tripoli.
CHETRY: There is also new development this morning in the month long uprising in Bahrain where authorities detained five prominent opposition activists, a further sign the government is trying to silence descent rather than open dialogue. Bahrain has imposed a three-month emergency rule that gives the military powers the power to battle the prodemocracy uprising.
Heading into the hot spots, our Wolf Blitzer is traveling with the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her trip through North Africa and the Middle East. He had a chance to sit down with her in Cairo yesterday. They're now in Tunisia where Wolf joins us on the phone. Good to have you with us. You talked to Secretary Clinton yesterday. She had decisive answers for you about her future plans.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM" (via telephone): She didn't mince any words at all. I was sort of surprised, being the diplomat she is, I thought she'd hem and how and give me wiggle room. But she was very firm when we asked her what her plans were on a whole range of options that have been mooted. Listen to this exchange that we had.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: If the president is reelected do you want to serve a second term as secretary of state?
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: No.
BLITZER: Would you like to be secretary of defense.
CLINTON: No.
BLITZER: Would you like to be vice president of the United States?
CLINTON: No.
(LAUGHTER)
BLITZER: Would you like to be president of the United States?
CLINTON: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: I guess she was pretty firm there. She didn't mince any words. Obviously, Kiran, she could always change her mind down the road. It's a free country, but as far as yesterday in Cairo is concerned she was firm. She has no plans. She wants to serve out her first term in the Obama administration and then move on to something else but not in government. She was firm on that.
CHETRY: She certainly has to deal with in the four years a lot of turmoil and unrest and challenges in her job as our top diplomat. I know you asked her about the situation in Japan and if their government is being transparent with ours when it comes to these nuclear fears. What did she tell you?
BLITZER: It's interesting, because there's so much on her plate, so much on President Obama's plate, not just domestic economic issues and other matters but in terms of foreign policy you think of what's happening here in North Africa and the Middle East, what's happening in Japan, it's amazing. And I wanted to get a sense if she thought that the Japanese themselves were being transparent, were being honest with their own people, with the world about what's going on. Here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Are you confident that we're getting the full story from the government of Japan?
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I believe based on the feedback I'm getting from our experts, because I'm not a nuclear expert, I don't pretend to be, there was a lot of confusion as there would be in any disaster. If you're hit first with an earthquake and then you're hit with a tsunami and then you're trying to figure out what's happening to your nuclear reactors, it takes some time to get a handle on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: And I can tell you, Kiran, she is really worried about U.S. embassy personnel, consulate personnel, their families, their dependents in Japan, very worried about U.S. military, tens of thousands of U.S. military troops in Japan right now, a lot of American businessmen and women and a lot of tourists. So there's enormous concern and they're trying to figure out what's the best strategy right now. They're going to try to get as many people away from the danger zone, 50 miles or so away from the danger zone. But they're going to make major decisions about getting out of Japan and this is, even as she's here in Tunisia and as we speak right now, she's meeting with the president of Tunisia, even if she's doing that at the presidential palace, I know she's also very close with Japan.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: She's also been obviously watching the events closely in Libya. We're getting word, at least some reports out of Libyan TV that Gadhafi forces may now be in control of another key city Misurata, as this ongoing conflict continues there. Did she give you any indication about what level of involvement the United States may be prepared to take as the situation continues to devolve in Libya?
BLITZER: Well, it could change but she was firm, and when I spoke with her in making it clear that the U.S. was not going to take any unilateral military action unless there was authorization from the United Nations Security Council. That hasn't happened yet, as you know. And she did say that maybe the Russians and the Chinese wouldn't veto a resolution now that the Arab League has endorsed the no-fly zone. But they're talking and talking and talking and in the meantime, Gadhafi is moving very, very rapidly, you know, moving his forces against the Libyan opposition, the rebels. The story could be over even as the entire world continues talking about it so it's a problem.
She knows what's going on but the Obama administration has no desire, no stomach right now to take unilateral U.S. military action to go after Gadhafi or to back up the opposition, at least not yet but that could change given what's happened on the ground but as of yesterday, and this morning, it doesn't look like it.
CHETRY: Right. Well, a lot of good points made this morning. Wolf Blitzer, he is traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton now in Tunisia. Great that you got a chance to call in and talk to us. Thanks so much, Wolf.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Up next, marketing products online. Kiran, the big difference between Facebook and Twitter when it comes to getting a little bang for your buck.
And your car insurer wants to be in your passenger seat all the time. It could save you hundreds of dollars. Would you do it? We're "Minding Your Business" after a quick break.
It's 18 minutes past the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: With Japan's nuclear crisis widening, the yen has soared to record highs. A lot of speculations investors and insurers will be redeeming overseas assets to pay for all these damages after a four- day rally. Experts say Japan's central bank may have to step in to weaken the yen to improve the company -- the country's, rather, ability to compete.
CHETRY: That sounds counterintuitive but --
ROMANS: I know. A weak yen allows you to exports more.
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: It makes your exports cheaper. But now, this is an issue. This is a fundamental issue, not an issue of the price of the yen really.
CHETRY: Yes. A lot of problems there, a lot of challenges for them. But businesses that market their products online are getting a better bang for their buck on Facebook rather than Twitter. This is interesting. The Web site Eventbrite (ph) reports that the average tweet about an event results in about 80 cents' worth of ticket sales while a typical Facebook "like" -- you know, that's when you give the thumbs up to a fan site or a site, drives $1.34 in sales.
ROMANS: I thought it was just about talking to your friends.
And Apple says it's changing the way purchases are authorized inside iPhone and iPad games after consumers complained their kids were racking up hundreds of dollars in charges. It seems when users enter their iTunes password on the device, that device does not prompt again for a password again for 15 minutes. Then it's turning that 15-minute window the kiddies are shopping up a storm. Sorry, I think it's a little funny.
CHETRY: Well -- and some -- I mean, and a lot of kids don't realize it, too, that they're doing it.
ROMANS: I'm sure.
CHETRY: They just think, oh, yes, we'll keep playing this game. It's not real money, is it?
Well, one way to save money on car insurance is to have the insurer in the car with you at all times. Carmen Wong Ulrich is here "Minding Your Business" this morning.
This is interesting. So they want info on you and they're willing to give you a discount to get it.
CARMEN WONG ULRICH, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
ROMANS: They want to look over your shoulder while you're driving. ULRICH: Not just look over your shoulder. Be in the car with you. So are you OK with having someone track your driving habits? I don't know if I am but if you are, you can save a lot of money.
Progressive launched an ad campaign yesterday. Their snapshot program which installs a data recorder in your car to monitor your driving, and it offers you discounts for safer driving. So what's safer? The data collected is mileage, hard braking, the time of day or night that you're driving.
Now this isn't opt-in program and it can save you up to 30 percent in annual premiums. That's an average of $150 a year. There are other companies with similar programs. Allstate Drive Wise program can save an instant 10 percent just for signing up. However, they do monitor your speed. You go over 80, that's not good. I'm in trouble there.
State Farm based on mileage, savings up to 45 percent and MileMeter from milemeter.com, this is specifically about miles. If you drive under 12,000 miles a year, you get discounts.
CHETRY: OK, I can do that one.
ULRICH: Now, of course, there are privacy concerns. We spoke to the Insurance Information Institute and they said, of course, yes, there are privacy concerns but if you're willing to volunteer and you save money, it may be worthwhile for you.
ROMANS: Would you do it?
CHETRY: I do the driving. I may do the mileage one only because I don't drive very often for the good of myself as well as my community.
ROMANS: Why would you want them to know how you're braking?
ULRICH: I don't want them to know how fast I'm driving. That's all I got to say.
It's just too -- it's a little too much for me but if you're, you know, safe --
If you have a teenager though, I got to say this is very interesting. You know how expensive it is to put a teenager on your policy.
ROMANS: Right.
ULRICH: And if they know that someone's keeping track of things --
CHETRY: They have a bunch of programs now where you can monitor your teen. They can't go up to a certain speed. So by the time our kids are old enough to drive, they're going to -- I mean, it will be like a Jetson's car. You know, they won't be able to do anything.
ULRICH: Let's do a quick market check on the markets and how they closed yesterday. The Dow down 242 points.
ROMANS: Ouch. ULRICH: Yes, that's a big ouch. And Nasdaq down 50 and the S&P down about 25 points yesterday.
ROMANS: The Dow negative for the year which is a bummer.
ULRICH: Yes.
ROMANS: We'll see how --
ULRICH: All right.
ROMANS: Thanks, Carmen.
ULRICH: Thank you.
CHETRY: Still ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, we're talking about this nuclear power plant issue on top of dual fault lines in parts of the United States. The top three I guess most vulnerable is what they're calling these plants. We're going to talk about where they are and whether or not there's a risk of what happens -- what is happening in Japan whether or not that could actually happen here.
ROMANS: Also, Dr. Sanjay Gupta live from Tokyo on the radiation fear that's spreading across Japan.
It's 25 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Right now in Japan, they are desperately trying to prevent a total meltdown at a nuclear reactor, dousing the reactor's cooling pool with 30 tons of sea water.
There are 23 nuclear reactors in the U.S. with the same design as the one in danger in Japan right now, including one in Nebraska. Many are getting older and they're getting more expensive to maintain. "The Daily Beast" compiled a list of the most vulnerable nuclear plants in the U.S. It's based on safety records, potential for disasters and by how many people live around it.
Number three on that list is the Limerick Nuclear Power Plant. It's just 21 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Close to eight million people live within 50 miles of this plant.
Number two is the San Onofre nuclear power plant. It's sitting right between L.A. and San Diego. Almost 9.5 million people within 50 miles of this one. Just like the plant facing possible meltdown in Japan, it sits on an open coastline near active fault lines. It is built to withstand a 7.0 magnitude earthquake.
And the most vulnerable plant according to this list, Indian Point, just 24 miles north of New York City. Scientists say it sits near intersecting fault lines but a major quake isn't really likely here. A meltdown there could put more than 17 million people in the surrounding area in danger. Indian Point has two reactors. They provide as much as one-third of the power for New York City and its northern suburbs. But Governor Andrew Cuomo has now ordered a safety review of this site saying we may have to get power from somewhere else.
(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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The company that operates Indian Point says it's built to withstand a larger earthquake than this region has ever seen.
CHETRY: Well, that's good news at least.
Well, top stories. The U.S. government helping some Americans evacuate from the earthquake zone in Japan using charter flights. Basically right now, it's for family members of government personnel but it's also warning Americans to stay at least 50 miles away from the damaged nuclear reactor, telling tourists don't even go to Japan unless you have to.
ROMANS: The Japanese military using helicopters to drop 30 tons of sea water on to a crippled nuclear reactor to try to cool it down. So far that's done little to lower radiation levels outside the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Engineers are also working on a power line to try to get the plant's own electric cooling pumps working once again.
CHETRY: And the U.S. military delivering relief supplies to the earthquake and tsunami zone. So far American ships and planes have brought in more than 7,000 pounds of food and water for survivors. American troops are also involved in search and rescue operations on the ground.
Well, the United States is breaking with the Japanese in one way here warning all Americans to stay at least 50 miles away from the crippled Daiichi plant in Fukushima, suggesting that the nuclear crisis there is more dire than the Japanese officials are willing to admit publicly.
Right now a radiation plume is drifting across the pacific toward the west coast of America. An agency at the United Nations is predicting it could arrive at the west coast sometime tomorrow.
Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us live from Tokyo now. And so a lot of health issues to discuss. But first of all, the workers that are at the site, we have had a few experts, nuclear experts that we've had on our show over the past few days that say this is basically a suicide mission that these people are sacrificing themselves, if you will, for the national good, and then we talked earlier with one of the men who was over at Three Mile Island when it happened, he seems to disagree.
But there seems to be questions as to whether they're being exposed to potentially fatal doses of radiation. DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: There's conflicting information and sometimes there's a complete lack of information. And what people are trying to figure out is what are the radiation levels inside the plant, and that's an answer we don't know. We know what some of the high readings have been outside the plant, we know what some of the readings have been, for example, here in Tokyo, 20 times normal but still very low in terms of causing any impact on human health.
But Kiran, you know, we know that, for example, these ponds where they're storing these spent rods, they can't get even close enough to examine them as to tell how much water is in them, they had to sort of examine that by air and so that gives you some suggestion that the radiation levels are certainly high within certain parts of the plant.
You know, the thing about it is, as well, Kiran, there's not a lot you can do to protect yourself from the worst type of ionizing radiation, these gamma rays. They may be wearing a suit like this which is sort of a hazmat suit, sort of loops around the neck and then wearing a mask or something like this - that says got a respirator in there that can help. From again, not from the most harmful rays.
So it's hard to say just exactly just how much risk they're at right now. There are certain levels that are certainly going to be more risky than other levels. The higher it gets, the worse but the thing about it is that they're just not telling us those levels yet. We don't know. It's just been sort of speculation and sort of trying to figure out based on the levels outside what they must be inside.
CHETRY: And so that's the immediate workers, the workers that are there in the immediate vicinity. What about the difference of, I guess, recommendation coming from the U.S. government telling citizens to stay 50 miles out before the Japanese officials had been saying 20 miles out.
GUPTA: I mean, look at the same data. This is part of what, you know, what we're dealing with here in some ways is unchartered territory. I mean, there's been no specific studies done to say this is the absolute size of the evacuation zone. It should be this size based on these readings. Some of it is based on weather conditions, wind conditions and things like that. So I think it's safe to say that the U.S. recommendations are more conservative. They're saying, you know, we need a farther evacuation zone.
Keep in mind with that 20 kilometer evacuation zone, you had hundreds of thousands, I think 200,000 some residents who essentially are displaced, adding to the displacement of the people who are affected by the tsunami. So this is really compounding those two problems. But as far as the differing numbers, again, Kiran, I said almost since the beginning there's an arbitrary nature to this and this is just another example of that.
CHETRY: And quickly, there's a lot of fears about the radiation cloud, I mean, eventually, the jet stream and the wind direction is going to be blowing this to the west coast of America. How concerned will we be when it comes this way? Will most of the radiation be dissipated?
GUPTA: Well, you know, I mean, we have precedents to look at this sort of thing, for example even after Chernobyl, for example, there was radiation that made its way across the continent of North America. But by the time it got there a few days later the amount of radiation that any individual would have been exposed to was a fraction of what a chest x-ray gives. I think it's safe to say, at least as things stand now that it's inconceivable as some experts put it to me that the radiation that would arrive in the United States would be of any detriment to human health. It's just going to dissipate across the ocean, some of the activity of those radioactive particles is going to decrease so it's just, I think right now there's really I think it's safe to say nothing to worry about for people living on the west coast.
CHETRY: All right. Sanjay Gupta for us in Tokyo. Thanks so much.
ROMANS: Japanese engineers scrambling to avoid simply a clear meltdown there. Four nuclear reactors have had explosions within them. Up next, we're going to talk to nuclear expert about what that damage could mean for the facility and for the rest of us.
It's 35 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back to "American Morning."
Attempts to cool nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant have failed. This morning, military helicopters dumped 30 tons of sea water on to that plant.
CHETRY: The helicopters from the air, they also have those water cannons from the ground but still they were hoping to lower radiation levels, as we've talked about four out of six reactors are damaged, and there are a lot of questions on when they're going to be able to get this problem under control and what it's going to take. We bring in now Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer and a chief engineer with the consulting group, Fairwinds Associates. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
ARNOLD GUNDERSEN, NUCLEAR ENGINEER: Hi, thanks for having me.
CHETRY: We keep seeing developments change. The latest news that came in about an hour ago was that emergency crews actually temporarily withdrew the water cannons after they detected higher than acceptable radiation levels. What is your assessment of where we are today on this crisis?
GUNDERSEN: Well, this is not something you put out like a traditional fire. Whatever water gets on to that nuclear reactor has to be sustained for months, if not years. What's pushing the firemen back is the radiation that's coming from the spent fuel pool, and it's like, they're called gamma rays but it's a very high powered x-ray, and without the water in that fuel pool, there's two things, one, it's not being cooled but two it's not being shielded and so there's an awful lot of gamma rays flooding that site which is going to force the workers to stay further away.
ROMANS: Which is why we think also that the water cannons now - we're monitoring a press conference, the water cannons now have been stopped. They've stopped the water cannons using the water on the facility and they say that they're not going to resume that and it may be because of those gamma rays in that, that would make it very toxic that area.
GUNDERSEN: Right, you know, you see these guys with the bubble suit and that's protecting them from the airborne contamination but those gamma rays are external to their body, it's like being in an x-ray machine. It's passing right through that bubble suit and there's only a limited amount of stay time that they can be in the area.
CHETRY: So what does that mean for the 180 workers? There have been differing opinions about what is going to happen to those that are cycling through as they desperately try to avert an even bigger nuclear crisis for their country.
GUNDERSEN: Well, the rule of thumb is that 250 rem of radiation will definitely give you cancer. So if 100 people get 2.5 rem, somebody in that 100 is going to get cancer. These guys are probably getting 10 rem, which means that four out of every 100 will get cancer. It's not that they're on a suicide mission and will die immediately, but in the remainder of their life, they've increased the likelihood of cancer by a lot.
ROMANS: It's probably clear they know the risks as well here. These are people who work in the nuclear industry. What are the lessons, if any, for the United States? I mean, we've just been showing where there are facilities in the United States that are of the same age, although many nuclear experts told us the age of the facility as long as it's kept up properly and there isn't an earthquake is it in good shape?
Angela Merkel in Germany, she said that they're going to be reviewing their older facilities and would not be extending the life of some of their older facilities. What should the United States do?
GUNDERSEN: You know, these old plants don't meet current standards, they're nowhere near as robust as a plant built in the '80s or '90s. So, you know, Chancellor Merkel decided that the eight plants designed in the '70s should have another look at. I was an engineer in the '70s when this plant was being built and we didn't have pocket calculators. We did these on a slide rule. So we really need to look at the calculations and the design bases, how severe did we really think mother nature was going to throw something at us.
ROMANS: You know, the United States though we rely on this energy. I mean, look at Vermont, 72 percent of their electricity generation comes from nuclear power. New Jersey, more than half. Connecticut more than half. South Carolina more than half. You know, could the United States afford to sideline any of these facilities here in the U.S.?
GUNDERSEN: Well, first off the Vermont Yankee number is not correct, but you know, this is the time of year where we can afford to shut them down for a period of time until we analyze it. The load growth in the spring and fall is very low, there's no air conditioning, there's not heating. And after Three Mile Island, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission shut down all of the plants of a similar design for several months until they went back through and took a hard look at them.
There's 23 units in this category and in the spring and fall it's an OK time, there's enough load to shut them down and take a good look at them before the summer peak arrives.
CHETRY: All right. Just one other quick question there, trying to get power up and running again so they can continue to get the water pumps back up and working again. Is that when this ends?
GUNDERSEN: It doesn't end. That heat is going to go on for years, but if they can, if the pipes have retained their integrity, they'll pump water on to this core, but the containments are cracked so the water will cool the core, but it will also create steam. The steam is going to carry out radiation. Less radiation than right now, but it's going to carry out radiation for months.
ROMANS: All right. Arnie Gundersen, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. The chief engineer with Fairwinds Associates.
GUNDERSEN: Thank you.
CHETRY: Yes, absolutely. Thanks so much, Arnie.
Still to come, the Education secretary has a message for college basketball. You know, you may be spending a lot of time on the court but you need to spend some time in the library studying as well. Some harsh words right in the middle of March madness. We'll tell you what he said coming up.
And a huge warm-up for the east, temperatures well above normal. And Jennifer Delgado is going to have the morning's travel forecast right after the break. It's 44 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: So we're really just starting to get into March Madness, St. Patrick's Day, people are watching basketball with their Guinness.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan says things are not going that well at some of the colleges because they're saying that schools, many schools are not even graduating half of their players, and if they're not, they shouldn't be allowed to play in the NCAA tournament.
That standard would knock out schools like Perdue, Syracuse. Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim says that the proposal is, quote, "completely nuts." He says basketball teams have small rosters. It would only take a couple of players to push an entire team below that mark.
ROMANS: Energy drink, I mean, that would certainly seem to shoot up your bracketology, wouldn't it?
CHERTY: If half were booted out because they couldn't graduate half of their players.
ROMANS: (Inaudible) of energy drinks, you know, they're seeing a very big boost unintended with sales shooting over 13 percent last year, but the drinks are sparking health concerns.
Experts say high caffeine could cause heart palpitation and dehydration. A spokesman for the American Beverage Association says energy drinks are no worse than coffee. An 8.3 ounce can of Red Bull has as much caffeine as one cup of Joe.
CHETRY: It actually has a little bit less, but there are other as Elizabeth Cohen have told us, there are other, I guess, stimulants in there as well, but kids don't just drink one 8.3 ounce. They're walking around. They're guzzling these all day.
ROMANS: I stick to tea.
CHETRY: Yes, I know, you are so good. I'm sorry, I can't make it through with that.
ROMANS: In honor of St. Patrick's Day, the White House has literally gone green. For the first time these fountains on the lawn have been dyed green for the occasion, pretty cool. First lady Michelle Obama came up with the idea. She said she was inspired by the hometown of Chicago. The Chicago River turns green, it's awesome, really awesome.
CHETRY: You didn't wear green today, but you love the Chicago River being green?
ROMANS: I do and my husband is wearing green corduroys.
CHETRY: Kelly green. He is Irish to the core.
ROMANS: Well, President Obama is meeting with Irish leaders today. He's also going to be attending some St. Patrick's Day festivities that are taking place on Capitol Hill.
CHETRY: Marching in the Chicago parade over the green river. It's very fun. Everyone must do this once in their life. It's 49 minutes past the hour. Let's get a quick check of the morning's weather headlines.
ROMANS: The weather's morning headlines with Jennifer Delgado in Atlanta. Hi, Jennifer.
JENNIFER DELGADO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Christine. Good morning, Kiran. Kiran, I like that you have your green on. You can see Christine and I didn't, we obviously didn't follow tradition, but let's get the St. Patrick's Day parade forecast out there.
It's going to be at 11:00 a.m. happy to report it is going to be nice. You're looking at video from last year. You can see dry conditions and guess what? We're expecting that today as well. I take it back over to our graphic here.
You can see we're expecting just a few clouds around, but how about the proof that we're actually going to see dry conditions? Well, I'll get right to that in just a second. Take you over to our max one. I'm having a little bit of trouble with our clicker, but I've got it right now. So here is a look at the radar.
Again, across the northeast, nice and quiet. Areas up towards the upper Midwest we are going to continue to see really some very light shower activity across that region. As that rain comes down, of course, we are watching that for the potential for possibly watching for snow melt as we go later into the next several weeks ahead.
Now, the problem is we're dealing with warm temperatures down towards the south. We have a ridge of high pressure in place and that is going to be sending temperatures 10 to 20 degrees above average. We're talking temperatures climbing into the 70s as well as into the 80s.
As I said, the warmest temperatures we have seen since last fall. So aside from my little clicker mishap, at least you got the forecast.
ROMANS: Jennifer Delgado. Thanks, Jennifer.
DELGADO: Working on this.
CHETRY: Thanks. All right, well, top stories coming up just a couple of minutes away. We're following the crisis in Libya. It's actually affecting gas prices as well.
The disaster in Japan affecting the whole car while driving a new one of the lot this summer may get a whole lot more expensive.
ROMANS: Fighting for their freedom. Muhammad Ali's personal plea to the Ayatollah on behalf of two American hikers. It's 51 minutes past the hour.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on stop stalling and call him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am not stalling. You are, too, you're a chicken! Balk, balk, balk, balk!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Balk, balk, balk, to you too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Balk! The buck stops here.
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ROMANS: Yes, Mrs. Garrett is getting girls back together. "Entertainment Weekly" says the cast of "The Facts of Life "will reunite for the first time in 20 years at the 2011 TV Land Awards. The actresses include those who played Blair, Tooty, Natalie, Jo and of course, Charlotte Ray as Edna Garrett.
CHETRY: Love it. Who is your favorite? Blair was the beautiful one but I really liked Jo. I thought she was a wise-cracker and I thought she was cool.
ROMANS: I really didn't watch the show. That and solid gold dancers, my mom thought I was too young.
CHETRY: I was as American as apple pie. He went on a limb earlier in the year and filled out his bracket, his NCAA bracket and says he has the top seeds advancing to the final four. We're talking about the president and his bracketology. Who did he pick to win it all? Here is a look.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This year, you go with Kansas after last year?
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: After last year, look. Here is 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 are going to go all the way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You didn't have any other help?
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CHETRY: The president picked the Jayhawks last year. As he said they lost last year, but again in 2009, he nailed it with North Carolina.
ROMANS: I wonder if they come in with the briefing book in the morning with all of the stats, national security, economy, basketball.
CHETRY: Well, he's a basketball fan so he probably follows it as well.
ROMANS: He might give briefings. T op stories are coming your way after a quick break.
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