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Trump Outlines Options to Destroy Iran's Enriched Uranium; Rescuers Race to Reach 7 Villagers Trapped in Flooded Laos Cave; NASA Shares Plans to Set Up Moon Base Program, Missions. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired May 26, 2026 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: As the U.S. and Iran signal, they are nearing a peace deal, large questions remain over the fate of Iran's nuclear program and its stores of highly enriched uranium.

KEILAR: Yes, President Trump posted on True Social that the material, quote, "... will either be immediately turned over to the U.S. to be brought home and destroyed, or preferably in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or in another acceptable location with the Atomic Energy Commission or its equivalent being witness to this process and event."

We're joined now by Joe Cirincione. He's a nuclear expert and author of "Nuclear Nightmares, Securing the World Before It Is Too Late." Joe, I do wonder what your read is on Trump saying that, that Iran's enriched uranium will either be transported and destroyed by the U.S. or it's going to be the IAEA or similar.

JOE CIRINCIONE, NUCLEAR EXPERT: Right. So Trump is showing some flexibility here. He had originally demanded that the enriched uranium be shipped to the United States.

Well, the Iranians balked at that, and so now they're willing to do a procedure. That they actually did before under the 2015 Iran deal, the so-called JCPOA. And under that deal, that's exactly what they did.

They took that enriched uranium, they down blended it so it could not be used for a weapon but only for nuclear fuel. They did it under the authority of the International Atomic Energy Agency. And they then shipped it out to Russia so they could do that again.

We've done it before. We know the procedure. That appears to be what they're talking about.

The same kind of deal that they did six, seven, almost 11 years ago.

SANCHEZ: If the United States were to get Tehran to agree to destroying this 900 pounds roughly of highly enriched uranium, what does that look like?

CIRINCIONE: Well, sure. I can tell you that. But it's more than just the 900 pounds. So they're not just talking about the 60 percent enriched uranium. They have 10 tons of enriched uranium at various levels. And they appear to be talking about all of that, which is what you want.

If you want to stop Iran from sprinting to a bomb, you've got to get rid of all the uranium, 60 percent, 20 percent, 5 percent, all of it at once. So what does that look like? That's basically running the enrichment process in reverse.

So they take that highly enriched uranium, 60 percent, 20 percent, and they mix it with natural uranium, which only has like 1 percent of the U-235 isotope. So you blend it down to a very low level so it's not usable for a weapon anymore. And then it's sort of like a belt and suspenders approach.

You then take that and ship it out of the country entirely so they can't touch that for enrichment purposes. That's what we did in 2015. And that moved Iran from a few weeks away from a bomb to a full year.

That appears to be the kind of deal Trump is looking at again.

KEILAR: We're hearing very different things when it comes to what Iran's saying and what the U.S. is saying on the nuclear issue. Iran says it's not discussing details of its nuclear program right now, right? It's saying that that's going to be for a later date.

The U.S. is creating this impression that Iran has really agreed to some key things already when it comes to its nuclear program. They have different audiences, they're negotiating in public, but help us understand what you think is going on.

CIRINCIONE: I think Trump is a car salesman trying to convince you that this used car is a brand new car and he's trying to pump it up and pump up the value of the deal as much as possible. And what that probably means is that this looks like an agreement that would end the fighting, end the war, open up the straits with an intention to negotiate these other deals. And so those intentions can be very important.

So if you have in the agreement the intention of Iran to dispose of its stockpile of enriched uranium, that then establishes that as the principle for what the rest of the talks are going to be about. That's my guess as to what's going on.

SANCHEZ: What would you see as an improvement over the JCPOA when it comes to regulating specifically the enriched uranium? Is there more the U.S. could ask for that they didn't already have before the conflict began?

[14:35:00]

CIRINCIONE: Yes, the key ingredient would be a pause in enriching uranium at all. Iran wouldn't agree to that in 2014, 2015. They were willing to agree to that right before the war. Right before the war, before the attack, days before they were negotiating, they agreed to get rid of their stockpile and they agreed to stop any enrichment for three to five years.

That may be one of the key issues because Trump has said he wants a 20-year agreement. Can they compromise on eight, ten, something like that? You get a pause in the enrichment for that many years, now you've really built up a barrier to Iran ever getting a bomb.

It doesn't mean that they can't do it, and it's far short of the original goals of this war. This is not unconditional surrender, liberation of the Iranian people, regime change. But it is a good deal.

This would be a deal of dollars for dust, as the Trump administration says. The Trump administration is willing to give them billions of dollars if Iran will give up its enriched uranium, its dust. That's a deal worth taking.

KEILAR: It's not dust, right? Though it's highly enriched uranium.

CIRINCIONE: It's tons.

KEILAR: Tons of it at varying levels. Thank you, Joe.

CIRINCIONE: Thank you.

KEILAR: Always great to have you. Really appreciate it.

Still to come, a high-risk rescue unfolding as divers navigate tight, water-filled passageways to save seven people who are stuck inside of a flooded cave.

[14:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Rescue teams are racing against time. They're trying to reach seven people who are trapped inside of a flooded cave in Laos. These villagers were reportedly looking for gold when a storm triggered flash flooding and it blocked the exit. They've been stuck there for nearly a week now, and rescuers have to navigate dark and narrow tunnels full of water to reach them.

SANCHEZ: Teams outside the cave have been working to pump out water and pump in more fresh air.

Let's talk to Edd Sorenson about this. He's a cave diving expert. So rescuers are going to have to navigate an 1,100-foot tunnel, Ed, which at its narrowest point is just 23 inches wide. I mean, that is claustrophobia-inducing, to say the least. This is a real challenge.

EDD SORENSON, CAVE DIVING EXPERT: It really is. Thanks for having me. Yes, the tightness of the cave is going to cause a problem.

I generally, as a cave rescuer and recovery specialist, I generally don't comment on specific ongoing operations. But in a situation like this, they've got a daunting task ahead of them. With the flooding water, it makes it instant zero-visibility mud. And then the narrow restrictions. And then, of course, none of those people that are in there, when they get to them, hopefully that everybody's OK, getting them out is going to be a challenge.

KEILAR: Yes, because they're going to have to navigate that back themselves. Helmets, they have breathing masks, there are gas monitors they're using, they're pumping in fresh air from outside the cave. What kind of risks do the rescuers face?

SORENSON: Well, the rescuers, I mean, it's not just everybody at home on TV land sees this as a tunnel. You just follow the tunnel. That's not the case.

Caves such as this, you know, I'm not there, but a lot of them are like Swiss cheese. You can go in and it might branch off in multiple different directions. So like I said earlier, they're going to be navigating in zero-visibility muddy water.

You're going to have to feel your way around through the cave because you can't see anything. The caves are not just tubular shaped. So there's places where the human body just doesn't fit.

So you want to make sure that you don't get stuck yourself. Remember, number one rule in cave rescue is -- or any kind of rescue -- never turn one body into two. So they've got the lack of visibility. They don't have continuous guidelines like we do in completely water-filled caves.

And then once they get to the victims, you know, the rescuers are all technical expert divers. The people are not. It's hard enough when you -- I have a lot of cave rescues -- it's hard enough when you get to a diver, experienced or not, to not panic when you take them back into that zero-visibility horrific situation.

So panic almost always leads to fatality. So it's bad enough taking a diver in and trying to expect them not to panic, but to take a non- diver in is quite the task.

SANCHEZ: Yes. We heard from a Finnish diver, Mikko Paasi, who's on scene for this rescue, and he says that there's a chamber underground where it's assumed that these villagers are now resting. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKKO PAASI, INSTRUCTOR TRAINER, TECH DIVE ASIA: It has an elevated dry section, and the chamber is big enough to handle 10 people. And it's quite high, so there's gas to breathe for a few days at least. And it should be dry to avoid hypothermia for the victim.

But at the moment, we haven't reached that chamber yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:45:00]

SANCHEZ: What's your reaction to what he's saying? Does that give you some indication as to how they can access these folks?

SORENSON: Yes. If they've got enough breathable air, that's job one. I mean, if you were metabolizing oxygen all the time, so a lot of people just think as long as there's an air pocket, it's air. And that's not necessarily the case. Is it 21 percent oxygen air like we're breathing now?

How much oxygen is in there? I mean, if they breathe it all down, metabolize it into CO2, they're going to go hypoxic or hypercapnic, and they're going to start to pass out. Also, they've been in there for a week.

The average person, I'm not a doctor, but I think they can only live between three and five days without water. So they're surrounded by water, but there's nothing to drink. And then if they start to drink muddy water, then you've got a whole another health aspect.

And then how much room do they have to do bodily functions? And if they do start to drink water, and they will, then what happens when they start to have the ill effects? We don't want to go into that on TV.

That come along with that kind of thing. And then how many lights do they have? Are they still in the dark?

Long periods of darkness can induce all kinds of hallucinations and all kinds of mental problems, which usually lead to panic, which usually leads to their demise.

KEILAR: What has been the key in successful cave rescues? What could you point to, Ed, that have brought people home safely?

SORENSON: You know, I get asked that a lot because there was a famous line from when I did the rescue of one of the Thai cave rescue divers. One of the guys that was on that team needed me to come rescue him. And people ask me all the time, well, when I got there that day, they said, what's your plan?

And this is all the law enforcement. I said, I don't have a plan. And they looked at me like, are we sure we got the right guy?

But the thing is, 30 years of doing this, not any two of them have ever been the same. So you can't go in with a plan. There is no one thing that gets them out alive.

It's their will to stay alive and your will to get the job done and to not quit and to make sure that we have the best possible outcome. And good, experienced recovery divers is going to be the key. So we saw with the Thailand thing what happened when they had their Navy divers do it.

Navy divers are great at what they do. Cave rescue is not what they do. We need people like who are there, myself, people like that, that do this kind of thing.

So if you're not an expert, you're just putting yourself, your life on the line.

KEILAR: Edd Sorenson, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

SORENSON: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: Still to come, a giant leap for mankind and living on the moon. We'll have the latest on NASA's plans to build a moon base.

[14:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Right now, NASA is giving new details on its plan to put a base on the moon and create a sustained presence on the lunar surface. It's happening just weeks after the successful Artemis II mission.

KEILAR: Moments ago, the agency highlighted its progress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED ISAACMAN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: We are leveraging the NASA playbook from the 1960s, figuring out what works and what doesn't in this epic science of survival, because the moon base is as beautiful as it is hostile.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: NASA Administrator Jarek Isaacman revealing plans for three moon base missions. Let's talk about it with former NASA astronaut Colonel Terry Virts. All right, Colonel, so NASA just completed Artemis II.

I think we're still excited about that. How has that mission brought NASA closer to rebuilding this moon base, or to building, I should say, to building a moon base?

COL. TERRY VIRTS, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Yes, so Artemis II was so exciting. I'm actually writing a blog post today about the photographs that they took. The Artemis mission was really about sending humans to the moon.

So this was step one of what's going to be many missions. This was a test flight. What they're talking about today in the press conference, I think it's still going on, actually, as we speak, is the first phases of what's called moon base.

And so instead of, in Apollo, the astronauts landed, they spent a few days there, and then they came back, NASA wants to actually build a base there where we can be there permanently. And so today they're talking a lot about the robotic missions that will be the first missions to go back to the moon. Jared and the NASA team just announced the first three phases of what they call moon base.

So it's going to be pretty exciting. But this is really a big program. It's not just one mission doing one thing. It's going to be lots of different companies.

[14:55:00]

A lot of the award winners were announced today building these different robots and habitats, and they call them LTVs, like the Moon Buggy, for astronauts to drive around on the moon. So it's really a lot of components to this mission.

SANCHEZ: Yes, it's a lot of steps too, and they're set to take place over the next seven years or so, or not only to reach the lunar surface, but to build the moon base. Walk us through in broad strokes what some of those steps are.

VIRTS: Yes, well, the first, I was kind of surprised, the first mission they just announced is in a few months, Blue Origin is going to land an unmanned robot, it sounds like, down near Shackleton Crater, which is by the moon's south pole, and they're hoping maybe there's some frozen water in this permanently shaded region. So they announced the first three ones, they're going to do different science in different parts of the moon, and then eventually to send humans there, they're going to have to have a much different lander. It'll be the second part of Blue Origin's moon lander, they call it Blue Moon, ironically.

So there's a Blue Origin lander, and there's a SpaceX lander, and so that's still to be determined how the humans are going to get to the surface of the moon. But the next Artemis mission, which will be Artemis III, is actually going to rendezvous the Orion capsule with astronauts with, hopefully, both the Blue Origin and SpaceX lunar landers in Earth orbit to test them out. So that'll be the next phase of Artemis, will be this Earth orbit test mission. And then those landers will actually take humans to the moon on Artemis 4, which will be a few years down the road.

KEILAR: That's amazing. So once the moon base is actually built, you said they'll be doing some science, we're seeing some very cool scans that they're doing here, and as they would be using that buggy, what do they use the base for?

VIRTS: Well, one of the surprising things that the program manager, Mr. Garcia-Galan, said that the moon base is going to be a few hundred square kilometers, so it's going to be a big area. It won't just be one module that you stay in. So these LTVs, the lunar transfer, the moon buggies, will be able to take astronauts and also robots.

They can operate them robotically and drive around the moon to explore a much bigger area than they did during Apollo. But there's lots of different science, finding out what the moon is made of. There are certain formations that we don't understand why they're there.

Seeing if there's any resources that we could use. You can do unique astronomy from the moon actually. These bases will be on the near side of the moon, but if you go to the far side of the moon, away from Earth, you don't get any of the radio transmissions.

Right now, our CNN program is getting transmitted into outer space, and it's creating noise on the near side of the moon. You can do really clean, pure radio astronomy from the far side. So there's a lot of different experiments they're going to do.

My perspective as an astronaut, learning how to live and work and survive in that really harsh environment, the radiation is terrible on the moon, the temperature swings are really hot and really cold, and there's no atmosphere. So learning how humans can live there is a big part of it, too.

SANCHEZ: And if I'm hearing you right, Colonel, it sounds like they may be watching CNN. So if you're out there, perhaps getting these signals in the future, thank you so much for tuning in. But before we go, why is exploring the moon a priority for NASA right now?

VIRTS: Well, I'll say, first of all, we had CNN on when I was on the space station. It was live streamed to our laptop in node one, so we were watching it. But the moon is really important.

Like I said, for these scientific missions, there's a lot of unique science that you can do there. But it's also important geopolitically, and I hate to bring that up, but the bottom line is it's very important. When we as Americans landed on the moon in 1969, it showed the whole world that our system is doing these amazing things, and the Soviet system was not.

And in the same way today, China is moving back to -- China wants to go land on the moon. They have done some amazing things robotically there. And I think if China sends astronauts there before we do, the whole world will look at China and go, wow, China's really the future.

And there's been, you know, we don't need to talk about the last year and a half, but they'll look at America and say, America was 20th century, China's 21st century. So I think it's very important for us as a nation to not let China beat us back there. It would be not a good thing for freedom and democracy.

KEILAR: All right, very interesting. Colonel Terry Virts, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

VIRTS: Thanks for having me on.

SANCHEZ: Before we go, we got to talk about this. Snakes on a patio. Health Secretary RFK Jr. shared this video of himself picking up, handling two snakes with his bare hands. Kennedy says he spotted the pair of black racers thrashing on Dr. Mehmet Oz's oceanfront deck.

KEILAR: One of them actually appears to bite the secretary as his wife is filming and floors him to put them down. Smart request there. And according to the Florida Museum of Natural History, racers are not dangerous to people or pets, but they will bite if they feel threatened.

And Boris, I'm no herpetologist.

SANCHEZ: Yes ...

END