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American Morning

Dangers at Home: U.S. Approach to Nuclear Plant Safety; "New York Times" Puts Up a Pay Wall and Celebs Fundraise for Japan; "Kitchen Science" of Explaining the Nuclear Crisis; Stopping Gadhafi; Japan's Nuclear Crisis; A Check on U.S. Nuclear Plant Safety; Monitoring Devices Deployed Across U.S. to Detect Radiation Spikes; Enforcing A "No-Fly" Zone

Aired March 18, 2011 - 07:59   ET

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

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KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Seven o'clock here in New York. We're following two huge stories this morning. First to Libya, a dramatic turn in the uprising there. The United States, Britain, and France mobilizing right now to enforce a no-fly zone. So, what does that mean for the Gadhafi regime? We have answers for you on this AMERICAN MORNING.

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CHETRY (on-camera): And good morning to you. Thanks for being with us. It's Friday. It's March 18th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christine Romans.

Up first, Britain, France, and the U.S. scrambling this morning to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya and to take out Moammar Gadhafi after the U.N. Security Council authorizes all necessary measures to halt the slaughter of the Libyan people.

Senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, is live in Tripoli this morning. Nic, a new development this morning. All commercial air traffic has been halted over Libya. What's the latest?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that means no one is going to be able to fly in or fly out of here. Anyone who wants to get out of Libya right now is going to have to drive over the border or take a boat hours and hours away to Malta.

We're hearing reports of strikes by the army against the people in Misrata, about 120 miles to the east of here. We can't confirm those reports. The government doesn't allow us to go to Misrata. And these are reports we're getting from opposition rebels in the city there.

We do know over the past couple of days that the government had been readying for an offensive. If this is the case, that is already a violation of the new U.N. resolution, which calls for protection of civilians, which the deputy foreign minister here last night said the country would do, but he also indicated it would be some time before the government could actually implement a cease-fire. Christine?

ROMANS: What do we expect -- sorry, Kiran and I are wondering what do we expect next from the west? What are they expecting there from the west? Now has been authorized the no-fly zone and the U.N. resolution, what do we think is imminent for Gadhafi and his regime?

ROBERTSON: Well, the deputy foreign minister last night said he didn't think air strikes were going to be coming any time soon. But the reality is the wording of the resolution means that if civilians are targeted by the heavy weaponry of the army here, the United States, Britain, France, others in the international community can take punitive action against the Libyan army.

We've also heard from the Pentagon over the past couple of weeks saying that if you're going to have a military operation, an air operation, any sort of operation that goes into Libyan air space, you're going to have to take out Libyan air defenses. So that remains a possibility.

It's not clear here if the threshold is set so that there won't be military action until the Gadhafi regime does something against civilians or whether there will begin to be some preemptive strikes against the air defense systems here in Libya.

But certainly the opposition are going to be looking to see the international community live up to its word here. And obviously, Moammar Gadhafi's regime is going to be testing the will of the commercial community. They will be likely pushing the envelope. There are military gains they want to make so we can expect to see more of that, as well.

ROMANS: Nic Robertson. Thank you, Nic.

CHETRY: Meantime, Britain is holding a cabinet meeting this morning, and Prime Minister David Cameron is addressing parliament as we speak. With details of the mission in Libya and in France, a government spokesperson says military strikes against Gadhafi will commence "swiftly."

James Bitterman is live in Paris this morning. At least from the French side, it seems they are anxious to start with whatever mission is planned in terms of enforcing this no-fly zone. What are you hearing?

JIM BITTERMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, exactly that. The French have been pushing this all along, so for them, the resolution getting through last night was an important step, and the kind of thing they've been advocating for some time.

This morning there's been an emergency cabinet meeting, as well, just as in London. There's likely to be more meetings as the day wears on, there's an emergency meeting in Brussels with NATO members. And tomorrow we understand this has just evolved in the last few minutes here that there's going to be a meeting in Paris between members of the EU, Arab league, and African union to talk over the situation in Libya. So there may be some more political and diplomatic steps that have to be gone through here before we actually see any bombs starting to fall. Now, what it looks like this coalition is building into is something like this. We're hearing this morning that Qatar will participate in this operation, as well as the United Arab Emirates. That hasn't been confirmed by the government.

Norway says it would participate, Canada is reportedly sending six F-18s for any kind of air operation. Denmark, once it gets through a parliamentary debate today may be sending some F-16s. Poland says it'll help logistically. But then there are holdouts. Germany and Russia are both saying no to any participation in any kind of military operation.

CHETRY: Jim Bitterman for us this morning in Paris, thanks so much.

ROMANS: With Western air strikes against Gadhafi's forces possible, there's concern in the White House about how long this mission in Libya might take and the price it will cost.

CHETRY: James Rubin, is with us this morning, former assistance secretary of state, now the executive editor of "The Bloomberg View," good to see you this morning. So, you know, when you talk about the language saying that, you know, they've been authorized, that perhaps, you know, western strikes are imminent in Libya. What are you as you read between the lines here -- what do you think is going to happen in Libya this morning?

JAMES RUBIN, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE BLOOMBERG VIEW": Well, I don't think anything's going to happen today. The good news is that the regime in Tripoli, the Gadhafi regime seems to realize that the west is finally the world really is finally prepared to act to prevent the potential slaughter in Benghazi that people feared.

What's unusual about this particular mission, this particular operation is that it doesn't have the character of an American-led NATO operation that we're all familiar with, which is by and large led by the U.S. military with NATO participation, run out of Brussels.

You're hearing as Jim Bitterman has mentioned and others have mentioned the participation of a number of different countries in the Arab world. Politically, that's good news. The more countries you have, the more international character it is. That's good.

But operationally, it will be complicated. Having not trained together, not flown together, some of these air forces may run into difficulties. It may be a little more -- it may be harder to do something, which is relatively easy shutting down the air space.

The hard part is going to be to stop Libya's army if it continues to move on Benghazi. The U.S. -- the U.N. have said they're not going to let that happen now.

CHETRY: Meaning there's not going to be any ground invasion in any way, shape, or form? RUBIN: No ground invasion, but how do you stop an army from the air? That's tricky, difficult. I think it's crucial that the west, the world finally stopped Gadhafi. Imagine if he had taken over the whole country, was full of drunk on his victory. This is someone who is, you know, ordered terrorist attacks on Americans. This is someone who has tried to build nuclear weapons. We don't want to formally mad dog dictator to become a mad dog dicta dictator. That's dangerous to us.

ROMANS: But if he holds the west back. His language this morning was he's going to send humanitarian aid into Benghazi. Everything has changed from I'm going to slaughter you to now I'm going to help you. If he cannot provoke the west, then maybe he holds on to his power at this point and maybe this moment has been lost to get him out of --

RUBIN: Well, I think there's two issues. One is, would he succeed, take over the country, conduct the slaughter in Benghazi? It appears as if we have prevented that. That's good.

But as you point out, now he holds the trigger, not the west. If he stops where he is, he can dictate the terms, the timing. And for those of us who lived through the period when Iraq was led by Saddam Hussein, a similar type dictator, it was very frustrating to have the dictator ruling the timing.

And so this is one of the downsides of a full international operation with all the procedures and all of the wordings that give in a sense the timing, given in the hands of the dictator rather than us.

CHETRY: How did we get, though, just from two short weeks ago this almost -- he was hanging by a thread, it appeared it was done for Gadhafi -- people were saying, where can he go -- to where we are today which he seems stronger than ever.

RUBIN: Well, that is a really unfortunate thing. You're exactly right. Just a couple weeks ago, it seemed like he was going to have a tough time keeping any of his forces loyal to him. I think we got there because we in the west made clear for at least a couple of weeks that we were not going to come help those opposing him. And so he had a couple thousand loyal forces, which is a lot more organized than the rebel forces. And he saw, kept moving, kept taking after town after town, no action from the west, just words, just words. And now finally at the last moment, we've acted. So that's how we got here.

CHETRY: We're going to talk more about this in the next hour. We're getting developments by the moment. Thanks so much.

ROMANS: An elevated safety risk at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant. The country's nuclear agency has now raised the severity level of this to a level five, the same as the 1979 incident at Pennsylvania's Three-Mile Island, the situation growing dire for crews there working to contain the disaster.

CHETRY: And the U.S. has collected aerial information saying the cooling of the overheated spent fuel pools is having little effect, meaning the water drops in the water cannons not doing the job at this point. Reactor number three is still highly sensitive and the fuel pool is believed to be dangerously low.

ROMANS: The Japanese and U.S. governments have had different ways to deal with radiation fears, but now a team of specialists is headed to Japan. They're going to give their best advice on manning the situation.

CHETRY: Pentagon Correspondent Chris Lawrence joins us now with more on this operation and how they're trying to help. Hey, Chris.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kiran. Hey, Christine. This is a very special nine-man team. They're specialists in dealing with the consequences of radiation fallout. And basically, they've been dispatched to Japan to go through some of the consequences of what could happen if there is, say, a massive leak of radiation into that area, talking to the military commanders there about what they would do about decontamination, about evacuations, about trying to resupply their forces in the middle of say a radiation fallout.

There's some of the troops that would be authorized to go within that sort of 50-mile cocoon established in which U.S. citizens are not allowed inside of it. There are some of the military that would be allowed inside. The U.S. military has given the Japanese about 100 chem-bio suits specifically so that some Japanese personnel can go into that damaged reactor area.

CHETRY: Chris Lawrence, thank you so much.

Eleven minutes past the hour right now. In the wake of the disaster in Japan, officials are trying to figure out how safe our nuclear plants are right here. The president has called for a review. And there are other politicians who have called for us to simply shut down some of them. Are we prepared in the event of a catastrophic accident like we saw in Japan?

ROMANS: We'll have those answers coming up next. All the news fit to publish online is no longer free. The "New York Times" is now charging for its website. How this affects the millions of people who get their news online.

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CHETRY: It's 14 minutes past the hour right now. The situation in Japan is getting more severe this morning. The data U.S. planes collected finding the Fukushima plant is really in no better shape than it was two days ago or many days ago despite the ongoing efforts to cool both from helicopter drops and water cannons on the ground. The safety risk level has now been upgraded and thousands more have been evacuated.

ROMANS: It's now simply a full-scale crisis and it continues. Japanese officials have defended their approach to the nuclear crisis. But President Obama is already calling for a full review of the reactors in the U.S. to see where we stand. We're joined now by Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman. He is in the White House briefing room.

Before we turn to the U.S., I want to just get the latest from you on what you're hearing about what's happening above the Fukushima Daiichi facility. We know that there's radiation very close to the perimeter around this. We know there's some radiation going into the atmosphere and a plume of minuscule amounts of radiation heading to the United States. What is the very latest from the briefing room about radiation and its spread from this facility?

DANIEL PONEMAN, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF ENERGY: Well, the very latest is that we are continuing on a minute-to-minute basis to support the Japanese and their effort to get the situation under control. Our particular contribution is -- includes the monitoring devices that we sent. We're continuing to operate both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to pick up any detection of ground deposits. And we're continuing to monitor the results on that.

CHETRY: There's also been questions just about how forthcoming Japan has been and the Japanese government in terms of -- in terms of giving accurate information. Are you confident that they're giving us and you the full story?

PONEMAN: Well, first of all, I think it's important to keep this in perspective. The Japanese have a huge task before them on getting this whole situation under control. I think their focus and the world's focus is properly on getting that job done.

We certainly have been in very close communication with them throughout this crisis. Every day and on an hour-to-hour basis we continue to talk to them and to provide any advice that we can and any support in terms of equipment and technical expertise. We've sent a number of our experts forward to talk to their experts even as we speak.

CHETRY: Yes, but isn't part of that -- I understand what you're saying that their priority number one is trying to solve this problem. But isn't it just as important to keep people informed especially when you're dealing in radiation? I mean, you have people coming off flights from Japan being tested for radiation in California. We've been seeing a run on potassium iodide pills sold out on our west coast. I mean, what do you say to people who are fearful of radiation?

PONEMAN: Well, look, obviously it's a natural and appropriate fear. We say a number of things. As you heard very clearly from the president yesterday, if you were in Japan, please do stay in touch with our embassy. Stay in touch with the consulates. If you're in the United States, stay informed. We are going to make sure that as we have any new information that's relevant, we're certainly going to share that with the American people. That's what they have every right to expect and that's we will provide.

ROMANS: We have 144 nuclear power plants in this country, 20- some that are of the same age and model, GE model as this particular facility in Fukushima. And Ed Markey, Congressman Ed Markey earlier this week said that the U.S. unlike for oil spills and other natural disasters in this country, that we simply don't have a disaster plan to deal with what happened in Fukushima if that were to happen here. In light of the BP oil spill, Hurricane Katrina, and the responses that were criticized there, the U.S. response is criticized there -- what can you tell us about how prepared the United States is for a disaster like this?

PONEMAN: Well, look, this is something as you well know -- safety is absolutely our paramount concern. Always has been. For decades, we've been improving the safety of nuclear power stations and it's not something we wait for a crisis to improve upon. We do it every day. We do exercises. We do --

ROMANS: So there is a disaster plan. So Ed Markey is wrong. There is a disaster plan if something were to go wrong?

PONEMAN: The critical thing to remember here is that what we also have going back to 1974 is an Independent Regulatory Authority, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and they have the responsibility and they take it very seriously to ensure that all kinds of contingencies are taken into account and they have the authority when they need to take any step to protect the American people in terms of modifications to plants, they would recommend or if they need to do, they have the authority to shut down those plants.

CHETRY: I know the president has been very supportive in the past -- of nuclear energy has come out. We're talking about $36 billion in guaranteed loans for nuclear plants, hundreds of millions in research. Given the situation in Japan, is the president still 100 percent behind nuclear energy in this country?

PONEMAN: Well, as you heard the president say, he spoke directly to this question yesterday. He still sees nuclear power as an important part of the energy future along with renewables and wind and clean coal. We have to have a balanced portfolio as we try to modify and get our economy and our energy economy into a new diversified economy, one that will be clean and reduce our overall carbon footprint.

ROMANS: All right. Daniel Poneman, thank you so much. Joining us from the White House briefing room, Deputy Secretary of Energy. Best luck in your efforts with the Japanese to contain the situation for the sake of the Japanese people and the rest of us, too. Thank you.

PONEMAN: Thank you.

CHETRY: The "New York Times" now charging to read the Web site. It's going to happen quite soon actually. Who else could follow? And is it changing the way you get your news online?

We're "Minding Your Business" up next. Twenty minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: The beauty of the Internet is everything on there is free. You can get the information you need -- oh, wait, no, you can't. The "New York Times" now charging readers for its online content. You know eventually they were going to start to go there. Carmen Wong Ulrich is here with more.

CARMEN WONG-ULRICH, PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT: Oh, you know this is the future. And is it the end of an era?

Well, one of the last big newspaper holdouts on free online access will now charge. The "New York Times" has announced a new pay wall for access to online content going into effect worldwide on the 28th. Let's break it down for you.

If you're a current home delivery and digital subscriber, you get free access. But for nonsubscribers, you have a limit. You can look at 20 articles or slide shows a month for free, and they keep track, trust me. After that, there are three pricing plans for $15 a month for a digital smartphone access to $35 a month for access to all platforms.

Now, there are some loopholes because they love social networking. If you go to the time site directed there through Facebook, Twitter, or blogs, you can read articles even if you're over your monthly limit. And a little full disclosure here, I write for the "Times" as does my husband. And taking a very quick right turn, "CNN Money" is reporting that shopping to help Japan is getting a great response. Lady Gaga has a $5 wristband, 100 percent of the proceeds go to charity. That says "We pray for Japan" in Japanese and English, and as of Monday, she tweeted over $250,000 has been raised.

"American Idol" is donating part of your "Idol" iTune downloads. And even Charlie Sheen, so dependable, $1 from each ticket to his "Torpedo of Truth" tour going to Red Cross Japan Relief Fund. And all the retailers have joined. And many -- Gap, Levi's and Kohl's are giving big. Not just cash donation, but clothing, as well.

CHETRY: Sandra Bullock also is a big donator. She's giving a million -- she's giving now $1 million to the Red Cross to go to help tsunami survivors, as well. So, you know, when this first happened, people are saying, why hasn't there been more from Hollywood or from the celebrities about this crisis? There was so much attention paid during Haiti. But it seems that now people are starting to realize the scope of this disaster in Japan.

ULRICH: Absolutely. And there's a lot, a lot of help in big retailers, including Uniqlo, who's the Japanese retailer competition to the Gap giving over a couple million dollars actually to the relief effort and clothing.

CHETRY: That's good stuff. And if you're buying things, sometimes it says on the Web site, you know, we will match or find out how to, you know, find some way to help make some of this money go to Japan.

ULRICH: Exactly. And it's great. ROMANS: Thanks, Carmen.

ULRICH: Thank you.

ROMANS: All right. We're going to talk more about Japan's nuclear plant crisis. It's so complex. Coming up, a simple and startling analogy that will explain what's happening, completely explain it simply what's happening inside that reactor.

CHETRY: Enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya. The defense secretary warned it would essentially mean war. How far is the White House prepared to go? We're joined by our own Candy Crowley with more input. Coming up.

Twenty-five minutes past the hour.

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CHETRY: Twenty-eight minutes past the hour. We've been talking about this heroic struggle that's taking place at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant where crews are desperately trying to prevent a complete meltdown by dumping huge quantities of water on a pool holding radioactive fuel rods. They're called spent fuel rods because they're no longer in use, but they still can give off radioactive material if they don't stay covered in water.

ROMANS: That's right. Dangerous radioactive material. Gamma rays in some cases.

The nuclear physics behind this potential disaster is incredibly complex. But CNN's Allan Chernoff has simplified it with an explanation from the kitchen.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Kiran, consider the danger of having a pot with no water on top of a high flame. Obviously, this could cause a fire in the kitchen. Well, that gives us a sense of the challenge the Japanese are dealing with right now at the Daiichi nuclear plant.

Consider those spent fuel rods. They generate tremendous heat, up to 2,100 Fahrenheit. Now, that's enough to melt them, burn them, and send radioactive material into the atmosphere. They have to be kept under water just like spaghetti cooking right over here. Normally, those rods are actually under 30 feet of water, but the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says in at least one of the pools in Japan, there's either no water or virtually no water putting us back into this situation. The pot on top of the flame.

How do we resolve that? Well, of course, we can add water. And this is exactly what the Japanese are trying to do right now. They're trying to get water into that pool any way they can even by helicopter dump all to avoid a nuclear catastrophe -- Kiran, Christine.

ROMANS: And, of course, that will cause a fire in your kitchen if it were the experiment, but the problem here is the radioactivity. That is what's just so dangerous about this situation. CHETRY: And the fact that they haven't been able, you know, still to getting a handle on that part of it.

ROMANS: Right.

CHETRY: So we're going to continue to watch those developments. Allan, thanks.

ROMANS: Top stories now.

Danger rising around Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant. The country's nuclear agency has now raised the severity rating to a level five. Officials say that means a situation that could have "wider consequences." Level five is the same as the Three Mile Island power plant event in 1979.

CHETRY: Well, President Obama trying to calm the country's rising fears about radiation, calling for increased nuclear safety, as well. Here's a bit of what he said on the issue yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to be very clear. We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the United States whether it's the west coast, Hawaii, Alaska, or U.S. territories in the Pacific. Let me repeat that. We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the west coast, Hawaii, Alaska, or U.S. territories in the Pacific.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Health experts say that the radiation from the Fukushima nuclear power plant will dissipate over the vast ocean between the U.S. and Japan. And if it was detected, it would only be small, non- harmful amounts.

ROMANS: And the world is mobilizing this morning to stop Moammar Gadhafi. The U.N. security council has authorized all necessary measures to stop the slaughter of Libyan civilians. The U.S., Britain, and France scrambling right now to begin the preparations to enforce a no-fly zone over the North African nation while the Libyan dictator promises to show the opposition no mercy.

CHETRY: Rebel forces in Libya have taken a beating this week. They say they now desperately need backup and they need it now. But there's no official time line for the no-fly zone mission to begin and also no word from the White House yet about the level of America's commitment.

ROMANS: Let's bring in the host of CNN's "State of the Union," and our chief political correspondent Candy Crowley, live from Washington this morning. Candy, what can and what do we expect the west to do right now about Moammar Gadhafi?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've certainly been told by some western European countries that they want to do this quickly, whatever this is. We also know when Secretary Gates was on Capitol Hill being very cautious about this idea. This was pre the U.N. vote. Saying he wasn't sure (INAUDIBLE), let's be really clear about this because a no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya's anti-aircraft mechanism. So whatever it is that Libya has, it could bring down any planes that were enforcing a flyover is what we would have - what the U.N. sanctioned no-fly zone would have to include.

So if a no fly zone includes an attack and this is what Secretary Gates said would have to come first - an attack on those air defense missiles that Libya has, then that's what we're going to see first. I also suspect that what you will see, because we have heard this both privately and publicly, from administration officials, they're not going to go this alone. You will not see sort of what we usually - is the standard.

It's either U.S. only or a U.S.-led mission or a NATO mission. Because what the U.S. wants to do here and what other western European countries want to do is to have Arab nations involved in this to take sort of the taint off what could be seen as a western assault. Because they understand that Gadhafi will use that to try to rouse his own people saying, "look, they're coming to get us. This is an attack on Libya."

But if it is from his neighbors, as well, and from those in the Arab world, then that puts a different patina on what is going to be, obviously, a very difficult mission and also one where people are already sort of starting to question, has this been too little too late?

CHETRY: It is also interesting though because as you said, it may not appear that the U.S. is leading this. France as we know eager as we heard from our Jim Bittermann in Paris to get this going. We're also hearing, at least, from David Cameron out of Britain that they are ready to go, that they're immediately moving fighter jets to bases where they can begin to help this no-fly zone. So I mean, are we looking at the potential for military action happening soon?

CROWLEY: Yes, I mean, I think so. I think that is the expectation. I'm not in charge of it, but the expectation and certainly all of the public statements we've seen and other correspondents who have been talking behind the scenes are getting the same sort of signals that it is something soon. But the U.S. has, this president - President Obama has been reluctant to come to this as a U.S.-led thing.

Let's remember that the U.S. in general is not all that popular in the Arab world. And so this is a very delicate time in Egypt, in Tunisia, in Saudi Arabia, in Jordan. It's all a very complex time. And so the U.S. is interested in it not being a U.S.-led mission. So I think that's why you're seeing more eagerness on the side of other countries and a reticence certainly on the side of the U.S..

ROMANS: Quickly, the U.S. - 104 of its nuclear power plants ordering a comprehensive review, the president did, of our nuclear power system. Meanwhile, it sounds like we talked to Daniel Poneman from the Energy Department, they're on the ground around that facility in Fukushima Daiichi. What has been the - how do you gauge the White House response to what's happening in Japan? I mean, what are the insiders saying about how well they've taken the lead here or not?

CROWLEY: Well, this has been tricky because obviously the U.S. doesn't want to take the lead in this either. This is a very strong, very proud, very independent U.S. ally. And so what the U.S. has tried to do is focus a lot of its attention on, here's what we want Americans to do. You know, first of all, we will send Japan any help that Japan asks for. We stand ready to do that. There have been many conversations between U.S. officials and Japanese officials and at the top between the president and the prime minister. So there have been lots of those private talks.

But publicly, it has been one as we've seen - we saw yesterday, voicing support for the people of Japan saying we will send whatever you ask for and, indeed have, and then taking care of those Americans that are there. Because, again, even with allies, it's a delicate situation. And remember, we started out this whole crisis saying, no one is better than Japan, better prepared than Japan at dealing with this sort of crisis.

But clearly, I think, you have seen some tensions. And I think those tensions come out in the smallest of ways where you see that Japan says let's evacuate everyone within 12 miles of the nuclear facilities. And you see the U.S. going, OK, 50.

You see the U.S. not wanting to have a massive withdrawal of the U.S. personnel, but nonetheless saying, OK, voluntary evacuations of families, of State Department employees or military employees. So there has been some tension, but I think publicly the U.S. has tried to let Japan take the lead and still is.

ROMANS: All right. Candy Crowley, thanks. "State of the Union" this Sunday morning, Candy's show, 9:00 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

CHETRY: We'll be watching. Thanks again, Candy.

Still ahead, are we prepared for the type of catastrophic disaster that happened in Japan? How safe are our 104 nuclear plants? We're going to go straight to the source. Coming up next, Timothy Mitchell, whose company owns and operates several nuclear plants right here in the U.S.. It's 37 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Just into CNN, extraordinary, extraordinary new pictures of the sheer force of the tsunami that hit Japan one week ago. This video was shot from inside a car at the moment the tsunami came crashing ashore. The driver says he had no choice but to keep going. Within seconds he says the car was floating on a seven-foot wave and somehow he survived. Just watch this.

Unbelievable, Kiran. Floating on top of that wave. Kiran? CHETRY: The fact that he was able to preserve that video is pretty amazing. And you caught the rainbow also in that shot. It is unbelievable perspective this morning. I'm glad we had a chance to see it. Christine, thanks.

The Japanese nuclear crisis has that lot of Americans wondering, wait a minute, how safe are our plants? President Obama has asked for a safety review of the country's 104 nuclear reactors, 12 of which are operated by Entergy Corp, unlike the cluster of reactors in Japan, now only a couple of Entergy sites have two reactors, the rest have just one. But four of the reactors are Mark 1 models, the same design as the reactor in Japan.

Timothy Mitchell is the senior vice president of engineering and technical services for Entergy Nuclear and he joins me this morning. Thanks so much for coming in to talk to us.

TIMOTHY MITCHELL, SR. V.P. OF ENGINEERING, ENTERGY NUCLEAR: Good morning.

CHETRY: Of course, just a lot of fears in general. I mean, we remember after Three Mile Island, it was 30 years before they even approved another permit for building. We have 104 of them. How safe are they?

MITCHELL: We believe they're very safe. Entergy puts safety absolutely first. But first let me express my sympathy to the people in Japan. We're very sorry that they had to go through this and our sympathy, our prayers are with them. But from a safety standpoint, Entergy always places safety first. And how we ensure that is through redundant and diverse equipment. Not only that, but beyond that we also have very aggressive and very challenging regular in the form of NRC. And many people will remember after the TMI accident, we also implemented an organization for self-regulation of the nuclear industry called the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. And they pursue beyond regulation, they push us towards excellence, which we're always striving to achieve.

CHETRY: Well, you mentioned the NRC, that's the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They issued a report about one of them. Indian Point, which is yours. They cited some concern because it is near a fault, the Ramapo fault. They put the chance of any type of earthquake happening in one in 10,000 but they said that it was right on the verge of requiring "immediate concern regarding adequate protection of the public." Are you prepared for any type of catastrophic event like the earthquake at the Indian Point?

MITCHELL: Yes, let me describe why - but first let me talk about the report just a little bit. If you look at that report in detail, the overall conclusion of that report was all the U.S. reactors are safe. That seismic events, the units are currently designed to withstand any seismic event. Now it is never intended to be a ranking of all the plants - it does list all the plants, but it was not intended to be a ranking - and what we're doing with that report - we started as soon as we got the report is looking at that report to see if there's any improvement because our number one objective is always to protect (INAUDIBLE) safety of the public.

CHETRY: I think, I mean, to be fair, part of the reason that Indian Point ranked so high is because of its proximity to such a large population center. I mean, we're talking 18 million people in a 30-mile radius, let's say, of that plant. Is there, if god forbid there was some sort of horrible accident because of an earthquake, is there a plan in place to get that many people away from Indian Point?

MITCHELL: There absolutely is an evacuation plan. But what we do to make sure that we never even get to the evacuation plan is we've gone beyond what our design basis is to ensure that we can protect the public. So we've staged equipment to be able to do many of the things that the Japanese are doing right now. We have training. We train our people, our operators get trained every five to six weeks.

In addition, we have procedures built so that we can deal with any sort of natural disaster. We try to learn from every disaster that occurs worldwide, whether it's related to nuclear or not to ensure that we're absolutely prepared for any contingency.

CHETRY: I know that Governor Cuomo has long been opposed to the plants, to Indian Point. He is now saying after hearing the report that it should be closed. What do you say to the governor?

MITCHELL: Well, I believe that - and Entergy does, that we can operate those locations safely. I also believe that the Indian point units provide reliable power at a low cost, and they're green.

So they do not emit greenhouse emissions. So I believe in nuclear power very strongly. Now, Entergy would not operate units that it did not believe were safe. If we didn't feel we could protect the health and safety of the public, I wouldn't work there, my company wouldn't operate.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I'm glad you had a chance to come and talk to us this morning. We really appreciate it. Timothy Mitchell, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Tech Services Entergy Nuclear. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

MITCHELL: Thank you.

CHETRY: Christine.

ROMANS: Kiran, a welcome warmth is coming as spring air arrives in the east. Jennifer Delgado with your weather forecast next.

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CHETRY: Beautiful Baltimore, Maryland this morning, partly cloudy right now, 53 degrees.

ROMANS: Mostly sunny later today, 76 degrees in Baltimore. It's going to be nice. Going to be nice here, nice in the Midwest.

CHETRY: Yes, for a day. Jennifer Delgado is following all this for us today. So people get all excited today. It's going to be beautiful in parts of the northeast, other parts, and back to being cold again. What's going on?

JENNIFER DELGADO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You're actually going to cool down in New York. As we head into Saturday as well as into Sunday. But for today, this is definitely going to be your pick day of the week.

It's Friday, of course you want it to be the pick day. All right, let's start off right now looking at the radar. You can see that rain that has been moving through parts of the northeast and up towards New England really dying down. So that is showing you improving conditions.

But out towards the Pacific Northwest, that's a different story. Notice, we have more heavy rainfall working into parts of California, as well as parts of Oregon. And the rain's going to be heavy today. Potentially we could see about 4 inches of rainfall and we could see 4 to 6 inches of snow right along the mountains.

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DELGADO (voice-over): But let's go to some video coming out of California. This is out of Bigsur and this is showing you mud slides. Yes, this going to continue to be a real threat. They've been dealing with this over the last several weeks. The rainy season has been very hard there.

And look at the ground there just gave way right on the ocean. Again, this is out of Bigsur and conditions there are only going to get worse through the weekend.

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DELGADO: Back on over to our satellite. Notice that we do have a lot of sunshine to start off your day. Notice, mostly clear skies out there for Baltimore. We just showed you a live shot out there, a good-looking day, as well.

And the temperatures are going to respond. We're talking -- the numbers actually going to be about 10 to 15 degrees above average. You can see even in the mid-Atlantic there I say, we could see temperatures about 20 degrees above average.

However, up towards the plains, the Midwest, and out towards the Pacific Northwest, temperatures will be cool there. Temperatures running about 10 degrees below average and here are your highs for today.

Look at the numbers, 80s, I love to see the 80's out there, remember spring starts on Sunday at 7:20. You can see the 80s spreading up towards the northeast as well as the Mid-Atlantic and for New York today, we're expecting a temperature high of 66. Now I want to leave with you some video.

Kiran, you said yesterday I think you didn't go to the St. Paddy's day, but yesterday was actually pretty monumental. It's 250 years, they're celebrating in New York City. It's one of the most popular parades.

You can see all the bands out there and the marchers, they have people from all across the country out there taking part in the big event.

Kiran, Christine, I don't know if you celebrated yesterday or if you pinched Christine, but I had my green eggs. I had my corn beef and cabbage yesterday.

CHETRY: I did. I had the corn beef and cabbage. I had some double and style fish and chips.

DELGADO: It was good then I had heartburn this morning.

CHETRY: Then I got a nice surprise.

ROMANS: When we came in this morning I was seeing people who were just finishing up all of the reveling from St. Patrick's Day and partying.

CHETRY: Which we watched on TV. We didn't go, but it was still fun.

Still ahead, triggering nuclear fears in America because what is happening in Japan. We're going to show you the technology that's being used right now in the U.S. to monitor our air.

ROMANS: Plus, after six and one half year journey, NASA makes history. A spacecraft is now orbiting Mercury. Details of this extraordinary trip ahead.

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CHETRY: It's a day after St. Patrick's Day, everybody showed up including Phil, but he's Italian. Of course, he is going to show up.

Well, if radiation from the nuclear disaster in Japan ever became a threat in America, we would find out about it very quickly.

ROMANS: That's because there is a monitoring system in place to detect it. More now from Dan Simon.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, Christine, federal authorities have repeatedly said that any radiation that might reach the West Coast will not pose a threat to the public.

That said, the EPA is able to monitor the air on a 24/7 basis thanks to equipment like this.

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SIMON (voice-over): We're in downtown San Francisco on top of a seven-story building. Here, the EPA has deployed one of its radiation monitors. Eric Stevenson manages the equipment on behalf of the federal agency. ERIC STEVENSON, BAY AREA AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT DISTRICT: It's basically in place to ensure that if there are any changes in the background radiation levels that we know about it quickly and that we can take effective action.

SIMON: There are more than a hundred of these devices spanned out across the country. Part of the radiation detection program that dates back to the 1950s when the United States did nuclear testing.

Traces of radiation from Japan may begin showing up in the next couple of days. That is brought on anxiety on the West Coast. Potassium iodide, a compound that guards against the effects of radiation has been flying off the shelves.

ELLIOTT SEIDEMAN, PHARMACIST: We've gotten all sorts of calls for potassium iodide including from physicians who want it for their families and we've never had calls like this before ever.

SIMON: Potassium iodide can have serious side effects if it's not taken correctly. The EPA hopes a transparent view of its radiation collection system will ease unwarranted panic. Philip Fine is a scientist reviewing the data collected in Southern California.

PHILIP FINE, SCIENTIST: We don't really know how much is being emitted from the reactor in Japan even if it was almost worst case scenario. It appears that by the time it crosses the Pacific over four, five, six days, there's a lot of dilution and dispersion.

And even though these are very sensitive instruments and may pick up a little bit, what we're being told is that the radiation risk will be minimal or none existing.

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SIMON: The EPA has added seven more of these monitors from Alaska to Hawaii. If there is any spike in radiation, it will know almost instantly. Kiran, Christine --

CHETRY: At least some comfort that we'd be made aware and there'll be able to be preparations quickly.

ROMANS: That's right, your top stories right after this break.

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