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Nuclear Crisis Deepens; White House on Japan; Robotic Search for Missing

Aired March 15, 2011 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: We're more than four days out from the quake and tsunami disaster in Japan, and there are still a lot of people who have no idea where their loved ones are. Imagine the total nightmare of just not knowing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): My child was at a kindergarten over that river, so we did not have time to go retrieve him. I hope his teacher was able to evacuate the children.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It's hard to believe almost everything has been washed away, but the fact that we cannot be sure whether the kids are safe, that's what --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: It's been four-and-a-half days since the biggest earthquake in recorded Japanese history and a merciless tsunami. And still, every hour seems to bring new fears.

Aftershocks are a given, but the latest big jolt with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 was centered west-southwest of Tokyo, and apparently not an aftershock at all, but an earthquake in its own right. The quake on Friday and most of the tremors since have been northeast of the capital. That's where the loss, the devastation, well, are just too much to bear.

The official death toll stands at 3,373, with more than twice that number officially listed as missing. The real numbers are unknown, but certainly much higher than that.

Here's a solid number for you, 91. That's the number of countries big and small that have offered some kind of help according to Japan's Foreign Ministry.

Now, through it all, the most pressing, immediate crisis remains the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Explosions have now rocked the buildings housing all three of the reactors that were on line at the time of the quake. And today a fire broke out in a building that houses a fourth reactor. Radiation went up into the atmosphere.

The fire is out now. The government says radiation levels at the plant are no longer harmful to human health. Now, that was not the case earlier, which is where Japan made a no-fly zone around the plant. And the prime minister made this request on live TV --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAOTO KAN, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We would like to ask you to remain indoors, at home or in your offices. We would like to ask you to remain indoors and avoid going outside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: CNN's Stan Grant has been following the Fukushima nightmare from what we thought was a safe distance in Tokyo. He sent us this report just minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STAN GRANT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Each day, almost each hour, this nuclear emergency in Japan seems to throw up new challenges. This time, the focus has been on two of the reactors, reactor number 2 and reactor number 4.

Now, in reactor number 2, there was an explosion, and that's raised concerns about damage to the containment vessel which surrounds the core of the reactor. And that's important, because if there was ultimately a full meltdown, it is that containment process, that containment vessel that would hold in the nasty elements, those radioactive materials that otherwise could go into the atmosphere.

Now, in reactor number 4, there was a fire. The Tokyo Electric Company has said that they can't rule out the prospect of a hydrogen explosion. What's also worrying is that that contained a pool, and in that pool was spent fuel rods. Now, what they're concerned about is that the water may have evaporated and those spent fuel rods may have caught on fire.

Now, that also led to a spike in radiation around about the same time within the plant. It went to levels that we haven't seen before throughout this crisis, levels that the authorities said posed a risk to humans. That was contained within the plant. In the hours since then, the levels have come down when measured just outside the perimeter of the plant.

Now, the prime minister, Naoto Kan, is warning that we could see these radioactive particles, we could see the radiation levels rise again in the coming days. Now, there is an exclusion zone of 20 kilometers. Two hundred thousand people have been moved away from there. The prime minister saying that people within a 30-kilometer radius need to stay inside, close the doors and the windows, and stay out of any potential harmful contacts with these hazardous materials.

All the while, the fight goes on to bring this situation under control, to cool these reactors. Now the authorities are saying they will use helicopters to fly over reactor number 4 and try to dump water into that pool and solve the problem of these spent fuel rods. This is a situation that really is minute by minute. It is hour by hour. And watching on, the people of Japan, who have been through so much since that earthquake really hit here and tore through the country, creating so much damage, loss of life, and also this nuclear emergency.

Stan Grant, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: And Stan continues to report for us.

Chad is here to give us some explanation.

We're going to have to hear this and see this many times to understand.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Sure.

VELSHI: A lot of us in this country benefit from nuclear energy in the United States. About one-fifth of all of our electricity in the U.S. is generated by nuclear power, 104 plants in the U.S., about half of which are more than 30 years old.

Give us the lowdown on a nuclear plant. How does the energy, or at least the ones that we're talking about, how does that generate energy?

MYERS: A 40-year-old plant. Here are the generators, right there. There are a number of ways to move a generator.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: You can boil and burn coal. That would boil steam and the steam -- you could run it through a dam, a big water dam, a big lake. All of a sudden, the water blows through --

VELSHI: From the generators on it's just electricity.

MYERS: It's all the same.

VELSHI: It's how you get it to the generators.

MYERS: How do we move those little turbines that makes the power? That's it. That's the whole thing in a nutshell.

And what we're dog with this, we're heating water, tremendously. I'm not talking 200 degrees. Like, 250 degrees C, OK? So, really, really hot, big pressure. This is a pressure cooker that you could cook a clam in, in about two seconds.

So the fuel rods are in the core. The fuel rods touch water -- pure, pure water. That pure water boils off. It steams, it causes huge amounts of pressure, and the pressure goes out through that pipe.

VELSHI: So these are the rods. The fuel rods come in, they hit the water, they steam.

MYERS: Yes. You have to be careful at how much steam you make.

They become -- up and down here with these control rods, controlling how many neutrons are flying around in there, the control rods slow down the reaction. You take the control rods out, you get a lot of reaction. And you have to keep this up and down.

VELSHI: You get it up and it comes through here. And now you've got these turbines moving.

MYERS: So do you need more power or do you need less power? Is it daylight? Is it nighttime? Is there air-conditioning? Is there heat?

Whatever -- you need to make more power or less power, and you can do that by those rods. You spin it through here and you spin it through. Eventually, it's still steaming here, and it goes into a condenser that is cooled by outside forces.

VELSHI: The opposite. It makes the steam back into water.

MYERS: It condenses it just like you put a glass of ice water on the bar. Eventually, you're going to get a puddle of water. That's the puddle of water you have to make to go back into the reactor to make the steam going.

VELSHI: To get the process going, right.

MYERS: They lost that water supply because the pumps that were pushing it in stopped because the reactor stopped. And then the backup generator stopped because the tsunami swamped them.

The swamping of those diesel generators stopped the water from coming in, stopped the cooling. The water boiled out.

All of a sudden, those rods are sitting there. It's like draining all the water out of your radiator in your car. Take the car on the road. Eventually, your engine is going to melt down.

VELSHI: Yes. That's right.

MYERS: That's what happened here.

VELSHI: But we didn't get a meltdown. What we got is an escape of some steam.

MYERS: We got something close. To get hydrogen and oxygen to separate, to get that explosion we saw, you have to be almost 2,200 degrees in there to get those hydrogen atoms to go "bing" and come apart. That's close to a meltdown. But they got water back in it to stop the meltdown.

VELSHI: And by the way, they used seawater because that's what they could get. You can't run seawater through this system, so the bottom line is they cooled it down, but that's gone. That plant is done.

MYERS: They cooled it down by pumping the water in from a generator that eventually ran out of gas, and they boiled the water out again.

VELSHI: Yes.

MYERS: I could have had a V-8, right? So there has been just a number of errors here. It just doesn't happen just by one thing going wrong.

VELSHI: But it's got everybody around the world, because a lot of energy is created by nuclear power, worrying about it.

MYERS: Yes.

VELSHI: OK, Chad. Thanks very much for that.

MYERS: Sure.

VELSHI: Millions of people in Japan are dealing with the tragedy of this disaster. Nearly all of those people, by the way, are Buddhists.

Coming up after this short break, we're going to take a look at how the Japanese pray.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for praying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: These are iReports from Japan. The iReporter says the concept of the video was to tell people around the world that, we're alive, smiling, and grateful.

No matter whether you pray or chant or meditate, you've likely taken a moment in these past couple of days to remember the victims in Japan. The Japanese people themselves have a long spiritual history. They will rely on centuries-old traditions of a distinctive Buddhist culture and the ancient Shinto beliefs of their earliest people.

Japan is 90 percent Buddhist, or Shinto, or a combination of the two. Duncan Williams (ph), a survivor of the Friday quake and a scholar of Japanese Buddhism, told us that right now, most Japanese survivors are at a stage of posting photos of missing loved ones. For families who found their dead, wakes, funeral prayers, and cremations may already be under way. Seven days after the quake and tsunami, waves of memorials will begin in whatever temples remain in the disaster zone. In Buddhist tradition, the seventh day ritual begins 33 years of formal mourning ceremonies ahead.

Buddhism addresses and tries to alleviate suffering, physical and mental. Much like other world religions, it stresses compassion while still acknowledging that death is a part of life. Monks in Japan will assure people that they survived for a reason.

To read up on Buddhism and how people in Japan are dealing with the disaster, head to CNN's "Belief Blog." It's at religion.blogs.CNN.com, and I will link that to my blog, CNN.com/Ali.

For a glimpse of what the Japanese people are going through right now, let's go to the Iwate Prefecture in Japan, where NHK TV filed this report about the desperate search for families.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): This city of Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture was devastated. Tadateru Konoe is the president of a sake maker. When the massive quake occurred, he told his employees to decide if they wanted to evacuate to shelters or go back to their families.

The tsunami hit Rikuzentakata. Konoe's company can be seen at the front.

He says he regrets more about the company's history being cut off than losing his assets. Of his 50 employees, Konoe could reach only 22 up to yesterday. He is visiting public shelters and other places every day, searching for the remaining employees.

And he found one. Today, Konoe could locate three more employees. Konoe says he hopes to restart his business somehow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Well, the search and rescue teams spreading across the miles of devastation, sending in robots to reach the most desperate survivors. You'll be amazed to see what those robots can do. I'll show you some of them on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): And, also, the electricity is running now and people are charging up their batteries for the cell phones.

This man says that his son -- he's with his son, but says some of his family members have died and all the infrastructure has failed. And there are no gasoline and has no method to move around. This man says that his family are all alive, so they are willing to look forward -- to go forward. And he's calling on his daughter that he will work hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: OK. I want to just go right to the White House. The daily briefing has begun. Let's listen in to see what they're talking about.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The national security staff and the White House is also coordinating a large interagency response with experts meeting around the clock to monitor the latest information coming out of Japan.

We have offered our Japanese friends disaster response experts, search and rescue teams, technical advisers with nuclear expertise, and logistical support from the United States military. Secretary Chu announced earlier today that the Department of Energy has offered, and Japan has accepted, an aerial measuring capability including detectors and analytical equipment used to provide assessments of contamination on the ground. In total, the DOE team includes 34 people.

To support our citizens in Japan, the embassy is working around the clock. We have our consular services available 24 hours a day to determine the whereabouts and well-being of all U.S. citizens in Japan.

A short while ago, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the State Department each issued an update on the ongoing situation at the nuclear plant in question in Japan. The guidance, once again, was that after careful analysis of data, radiation levels, and damage assessments to all units at the plant, our independent experts at the NRC are in agreement with the response and measures taken by Japanese technicians, including their recommended 20-kilometer radius for evacuation and additional shelter in place recommendations out to 30 kilometers.

Both the NRC and the State Department are continuing to ask American citizens in Japan to listen to the local Japanese officials for the very latest information regarding the situation there.

With that, I will take your questions -- Julie.

QUESTION: I know you just said that you're urging Americans in Japan to listen to the local officials there. We are starting to see, though, some other governments, China, France, Austria, taking steps to either urge their citizens or recommend their citizens leave Tokyo.

Does the U.S. feel like its citizens in Tokyo are safe at this point?

CARNEY: The assessment that I just mentioned made by the NRC is that the actions and recommendations taken by the Japanese government are the same that we would take in the situation, and therefore they support and are recommending to American citizens that they listen to and follow the instructions of the Japanese government or local Japanese officials.

QUESTION: So taking into account all of the possible options that could happen at this point, there's no recommendation that U.S. citizens leave Tokyo at this point?

CARNEY: There is not that I'm aware of. I refer you -- obviously, the State Department issues those kinds of advisories. But again, I would refer to what the NRC has just put out.

QUESTION: And given that the situation at this plant took a turn for the worse overnight, do your comments from yesterday that there's no threat to Hawaii or the West Coast of the U.S., do those comments still stand?

CARNEY: Well, as you know, those comments were not mine, because I'm not the expert, but the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is an independent agency charged specifically with safety regarding our nuclear industry. And Chairman Jaczko made clear that he believes, based on his analysis and the NRC's analysis, that there is no threat posed by --

QUESTION: Actually, he said highly unlikely. He didn't say no. They later --

(CROSSTALK)

CARNEY: Let me -- I have language, precisely what he said. "You aren't going to have any radiological material that, by the time it traveled those large distances, could present any risk to the American public."

That's a quote from yesterday. So I will defer to him as he is the expert on this.

QUESTION: But as far as you know, that comment stands even given the developments overnight?

CARNEY: Again, I think the NRC has put out additional information today, but on that issue, yes -- Trisha (ph).

QUESTION: On Bahrain, yesterday you said the Saudi troops are not an (ph) invasion. But does the U.S. welcome them there? And do you think it will help stabilize the kingdom?

VELSHI: All right. We're going to continue to monitor this for you.

We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, I'm going to talk to you about robots that are being put to use to go where human rescue teams can't go in Japan. Some very, very interesting things right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: Thousands upon thousands of people are missing right now in Japan. Help from around the world is pouring in to help find those missing people and to recover the bodies of the dead. We've seen crews of people on land and water. We've seen groups of search and rescue dogs. And now we've received word of search and rescue robots deployed in Japan.

Here to walk us through the specifics of the robots is an expert, Dr. Henrik Christensen He's the director of the Center for Robotics and Intelligent Machines at Georgia Tech, here in Atlanta.

Last hour, Dr. Christensen and I talked about the Active Scope Camera robot that looks like a snake. We talked about the Quince robot that can climb stairs and get into places where humans can't get.

I'm going to talk about the Quince again in a minute, but let's talk about the Tokyo Fire Department. They've got something called the Robo-Q. What is that?

DR. HENRIK CHRISTENSEN, ROBOTICS EXPERT, GEORGIA TECH: That's a larger robot that can basically carry out people. So it's relatively large. It could carry out also other dangerous objects that are there. But basically, the small robots we talked about early on will be able to go in and look at structures, but they wouldn't be able to take an injured person and actually carry that person out.

VELSHI: And now we're looking at that.

CHRISTENSEN: Exactly. So here you're seeing the structure where you can basically go out, you can find a person, you can drag them out. It could be a situation where you feel it's too dangerous to send in a first responder.

VELSHI: Right.

CHRISTENSEN: So, instead, you send in a robot.

VELSHI: For instance, meaning an unstable building, perhaps.

CHRISTENSEN: As an example, yes. Exactly, an unstable building, it could be under a bridge. You're worried, is this going to collapse? It could also be in the nuclear scenario, where you have somebody that has fainted or something, and you don't want to send in other people. Then you can send in the robot.

VELSHI: OK. I want to talk again about that Quince that you mentioned. Quite a fascinating, simple-looking mechanism. It doesn't look like the world's most advanced thing.

Let's take a look at that. That's the one on tractor wheels like a 4 x 4. This is being deployed now as well.

CHRISTENSEN: This is being deployed. It's a relatively large robot. It's three, four-feet long. And it allows you to basically drive over things, it allows you to drive up and down staircases. It allows you to --

VELSHI: I mean, look. This is fascinating.

CHRISTENSEN: Exactly. So, if you have something on the second or third floor, you can use this robot to go up the staircases to get a pretty good sense for what's going on.

VELSHI: It's not carrying anything. It doesn't have a payload. The idea of putting this thing in there is a camera or sensors.

CHRISTENSEN: It's a mobile camera. But, also, you could have, for instance, a spectrometer, so then you could get a sense for, is there a gas leakage? You could put on radiation sensors to get a sense for, do we have radiation threats here?

VELSHI: Yes.

CHRISTENSEN: So also it's -- but it's basically a mobile sensor.

VELSHI: OK. And then there was that Active Scope. You were telling me that one of the teams that deals with this is actually from Sendai, in Japan, which is one of the most hard-hit areas.

CHRISTENSEN: Right. Exactly. So, Professor Takadura (ph) is from Sendai. He was in Texas when this started to test this.

So here you're actually seeing his snake robot, the Active Scope. It's about an inch thick.

They were here in Texas training for exactly that kind of scenario in disaster cities (ph) in Texas. And on Friday they were getting ready to fly home, and then they heard about the disaster and they packed up as quickly as they could and got back.

And they are getting deployed right now. I spoke to him this morning. He's doing well, his family is doing well. He's a little bit frustrated that the electricity was going on and off all the time because of some of the other challenges.

VELSHI: Sure. Right. And these things in that sense can be self-contained.

CHRISTENSEN: Absolutely.

VELSHI: That's incredible.

All right. Dr. Henrik Christensen is the director of the Center for Robotics and Intelligent Machines at Georgia Tech.

Thank you for joining us.

CHRISTENSEN: Thank you.

VELSHI: All right. Another quake shakes Japan. This one, near a huge, active volcano.

Meantime, the Nikkei, the stock exchange, drops even more than it did yesterday.

I'll bring you all the latest on Japan, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Nearly 3:30 a.m. Wednesday in Japan where the ground is still rumbling away beneath quake survivors' feet. Moderate to strong aftershocks making for a nervous night. Plus, we had an entirely separate earthquake strike Japan's main island, a couple hundred miles south of Sendai. According to the USGS, it had a magnitude of 6.2 and it hit Shizuoka prefecture, which is the home to Mt. Fuji, a volcano. No tsunami threat, fortunately, and a nearby nuclear plant has been given the all-clear.

The nuclear crisis in Fukushima has got the country - well, the whole world, actually, on edge. Today the Nikkei, the stock market there, fell 10.6 percent. That's the biggest percentage drop since the thick of the global financial crisis back in 2008. If you factor in yesterday's losses, it's down about 17 percent in two days. That's been dragging down markets right around the world.

The Dow, you're looking at where it is right now, it's recovered quite a bit but plunged early this morning. Right now, the Dow is off about 1.2 percent, recovering after an early plunge in markets around the world.

Secretary of state Hillary Clinton met earlier with Japan's foreign minister at G-8 talks in Paris. He briefed her on the latest developments in the nuclear crisis, and she again pledged Washington's full support. From Paris, she flew to Cairo to meet Egypt's new foreign minister. She was hoping to meet members of the pro-democracy movement that helped topple President Hosni Mubarak.

But a coalition of several youth groups is refusing to sit down with her. They say she and the United States didn't lend enough support as they fought to oust Mubarak.

And America's last World War I veteran, Frank Buckles, is being laid to rest today with full military honors. He passed away last month at 110. Visitors have been paying their respects to Buckles' flag-draped casket in the chapel at Arlington National Cemetery. His burial will feature the military tradition of firing three rifle volleys.

And after years as the quack for Aflac, Gilbert Gottfried is out. Aflac fired the comedian behind its duck pitchman after he tweeted some distasteful jokes about the disaster in Japan. Gottfried has been part of Aflac's ad campaign since 2000. The company statement says his comments were, quote, "lacking in humor and do not represent the thoughts or feelings of anyone at Aflac." Aflac, by the way, does about 75 percent of its business in Japan.

On Thursday, he turned 25. On Friday, he survived an earthquake and a tsunami. A survivor's trip home to see what little is left. Up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Rescue teams are working against the clock and weather in Japan to try and find survivors of Friday's tsunami and quake disaster. We learned today that over 6,700 people are still missing. The search teams are driving through scenes like this one, witnessing firsthand towns that have been flattened, buildings collapsed on top of themselves.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien took a walking tour through the town you just saw. Her guide was a 25-year-old American survivor. Take a look at this report she just filed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A walk through the narrow streets of Kesanuma is stunning. The debris piled high, cars crushed and overturned, boats resting on sidewalks. It's a testament to the power of the tsunami, which roared into the city of 70,000 people just minutes after the earthquake shook the residents to their core.

But this morning, the ferry to and from the tiny island of Oshima was running again. And dozens of people lined up, hoping to get to their loved ones, some who had been stranded for days. On board, Paul Fale (ph). He turned 25 on Thursday, and by Friday, he'd be a survivor of Japan's worst earthquake ever.

PAUL FALE, AMERICAN SURVIVOR OF JAPAN'S QUAKE AND TSUNAMI: It was just - everything - all of these buildings were just collapsed a lot like this. Cars were, like, smashed here and there, broken glasses everywhere. I tried to get closer, but, like, everything was such a mess, such a wreck. There was no way for me to even get close. Everything was strewn about.

O'BRIEN: An assistant teacher on nearby Oshima Island, his classroom was on high ground, so he'd been safe. Now he was back in the town where he lives to witness the devastation firsthand, starting with a visit to his apartment, a five-minute walk.

(on camera): How worried are you that your apartment is wiped out?

FALE: From looking at this, I don't think it's going to be -- I think it will be fine, really.

O'BRIEN: Yes? What makes you think it's going to be fine?

FALE: I don't know. I'm just guessing really.

O'BRIEN: Hopeful?

FALE: Just looking at this right now, it's pretty bad.

O'BRIEN: But we're stopped by a street full of mud and debris and water. We can't get through. What do you think?

FALE: I wonder if we can go around that direction.

O'BRIEN: We could try.

(voice-over); At every turn, the road impassable.

(on camera): Your parents must be frantically thinking about you.

FALE: Yes.

O'BRIEN: We find a way across glass and splinters of wood beams.

(on camera): Watch the nails, though, OK? Be careful.

(voice-over): But again we can't get through. He's so close but so far. And the closer we get, the more anxious Paul gets. Suddenly, out of the blue --

FALE: Rachel, hey! How are you? How are you?

How's David? Have you seen David at all?

O'BRIEN: It's his friend Rachel Shook, also a teacher. She's his neighbor, too.

The three of us set off to find a way into the apartment, walking past the oddities the stunning power of a tsunami brings, like a boat perched on top of a car.

After twists and turns, we're finally there. Rachel takes a moment to update the list she keeps on her front door. Friends who have made it.

Then Paul tries his key, and he's in. Inside he tries to salvage medicine and food, but mostly it's a lost cause. Back outside, while we're set up for an interview, Paul borrows my satellite phone to call his parents.

FALE: Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. It's Paul. Just saying I'm alive, and I'm safe right now in Katsanuma.

O'BRIEN: He gets voice mail and leaves a message. But during our interview, he discovers why his parents weren't answering the phone.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On of our bookers, Ben Finley, has been in contact with an American family, Peter and Mary Fales. They had been desperately looking for their son.

O'BRIEN: Paul's mom, Mary, and father, Peter, already scheduled for an interview on "AC 360" to discuss their missing son, are thrilled.

FALE: Yes, I can hear you, Dad. Hi.

PETER FALE, PAUL FALE'S FATHER (on the phone): How are you? We really miss you. PAUL FALE: I'm fine, Dad. I'm alive. I'm okay.

MARY FALE, PAUL FALE'S MOTHER: Hi, sweetheart. You sound wonderful.

PAUL FALE: Hi, Mom. I am.

PETER FALE: And you've still got my hat there.

PAUL FALE: Yes, I still do. I'll give it back to you as soon as I can.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: That was nice there could be a little bit of levity in that, Dad recognizing his hat.

Listen, let's get back to the issue of radiation. The radiation from the nuclear crisis in Japan is raising a lot of fear. But radiation exposure in general is a natural and daily event, far more common than you would think. I'm going to explain this to you on the other side of the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Remarkable, the devastation there.

Every day we do a breakdown of something big in the news. Today we want to talk about radiation because that's what a lot of people are talking about. The fears of levels of radiation in Japan because of the nuclear plant fires, the worries over possible meltdown. Remember this, radiation itself shouldn't scare you necessarily. Exposure occurs everyday to all of us.

CNN's Carl Azuz is here to explain. Carl, radiation is a fairly normal phenomenon.

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Right. For all of us. And as you just said -- and we're talking about it's in the air we breathe, the ground we walk on. A few different places I found it, Ali, was through cosmic and UV rays. These come from space, cosmic rays, UV from the sun.

The earth's atmosphere does an excellent job of protecting us from these. So, nothing to worry about there. Also, elements in the air, and by this I mean radon in the air - different homes, different building materials will have different levels of radiation. And then the ground we walk on. We're talking about radium, carbon 14 they use for carbon dating, and of course, uranium, which is used in much, much higher concentrations to power these nuclear plants.

One unit of measurement when we talk about radiation is the milliseivert. And on average per year, Americans get about 3 millisieverts of radiation. That's sort of the benchmark, those 3 milliseiverts.

VELSHI: Three millisieverts. OK. Give me a sense of what different things give you in terms of exposure to radiation.

AZUZ: Well, for one thing, when you get on a plane, you have less atmosphere above you protecting you from radiation on space. So, on a plane, the levels of millisieverts you're exposed to are a bit higher than normal. We're looking at about three days worth, about three-hundredths of a millisievert, in a five-hour coast to coast flight.

VELSHI: Wow. And I fly three, four times a week. So, I'm getting more than most people not too far from that plant. All right, what else?

AZUZ: Well, it goes up two for chest X-rays. If you've gotten chest X-rays recently. Those will give you about a hundredth - I'm sorry, a tenth of a millisievert. That's 10 days' worth. You get three months' worth of a millisievert if you have a mammogram, for instance. That's one other thing where it increases.

And then listen to this. For a chest CT scan, eight millsieverts. And that's three years' worth.

VELSHI: Huh. So, this whole business about X-rays and CTs, they're not kidding when they say there's a lot of radiation.

AZUZ: There's more than what you naturally get, months and years' worth -- they're compared with what you normally get walking around. But I want to underscore they're not considered dangerous levels. We are able to sustain that. It is increased, but not to the point where -- unless you've had a lot of CT scans or X-rays in a short amount of time, shouldn't be concerned.

VELSHI: OK. Let's talk about things that we can remember in terms of radiation damage. Think about Chernobyl.

AZUZ: Yes. That's a worst-case scenario. I mean, we've mentioned it's three millsieverts a year. But when you look at what happened in Chernobyl, workers there were exposed, -- we're talking about 124 workers, exposed to levels of between 800 and 16,000 millisieverts.

VELSHI: Wow. So 3 is normal in a year?

AZUZ: Three is normal in a year. And we're looking at 800 to 16,000 in days. Twenty-eight of those workers died within three months. It's hard to keep tabs on the others in terms of when they're getting effects from this radiation and how long afterward. But --

VELSHI: That's a meltdown. That's the difference between some steam with radiation escaping from a nuclear plant and a meltdown.

AZUZ: That's exactly right. And one thing I do want to underscore is even where we've seen radiation spike with some of these explosions at the nuclear plants in Japan, the levels we're talking about are still far below that 800 to 16,000 level millisievert level you hear about at Chernobyl. VELSHI: Right. Because a number of people who had been watching the news or getting their information thought there was a nuclear explosion, which is different than an explosion at a nuclear plant --

AZUZ: Exactly right, Ali.

VELSHI: -- causing damage. So, that's an important piece of information to know. That shouldn't suggest that you shouldn't be concerned about safety in nuclear power generation, but good to put it in perspective for us.

All right. Carl, thanks very much for that.

AZUZ: Thank you, Ali.

VELSHI: We're getting a lot of new information with what's going on with the nuclear reactors in Fukushima. CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us next with a look at the health effects of possible radiation exposure in Japan. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: As we've been reporting, fears of radioactive exposure grip Japan right now. In the latest incident, a fire broke out at the number four reactor building at this plant we've been following, the Fukushima nuclear power plant. It was extinguished and an explosion occurred at the number two reactor.

Here's CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We're getting a lot of new information about what's happening at those nuclear reactors and a lot of information that's pertinent to the potential health effects as well. This morning, we heard from the officials saying that there was enough radiation that had been released that it could have an impact on human health. They also said that they expect these levels of radiation, these -- venting of radiation particles into the atmosphere would be continuing for some time.

Now, how to piece this all together, how to give it context, involves looking at what the radiation is and just how high the doses are. So, numbers are important here. For example, the number 400 millisieverts. No need to remember it necessarily, but keep in mind this is one of the highest readings that was found today near one of the reactors. Typically just walking around, living in most countries in the world, you're going to get a certain amount of background radiation, a few millisieverts a year. If you get a chest X-ray, you're going to get a few more millisieverts. You get a C.A.T. scan, you get a couple hundred.

Here we're talking about 400 millisieverts that was actually within the plant. As it starts to move outside the gates, some of that will decay, some of that will disperse, and people who are 20 to 30 kilometers away will as a result get a pretty low dose of radiation.

But we did hear that that release had occurred. That was one of the very highest readings that we've heard from these nuclear plants.

We also heard 175 miles away on the USS George Washington, they started to detect above-normal levels of radiation. Still low, but above normal. They believe that also came from the Fukushima plant, so you're starting to see some distribution of the radiation levels and again, of course. the release.

When you think about protection -- this is where a lot of the focus is right now -- you think about three things. Time, distance and shielding. Time, you want to reduce your time of exposure. Distance, you want to get as far away from the exposure as possible, which is why you have the evacuation areas. Then shielding. Staying inside your home, for example, can provide a certain amount of shielding.

There are also things like this. This is a personal decimeter (ph). It will do two things. It will sort of give you an idea of the cumulative radiation that you're receiving and it will also will alarm if there's a sudden sort of spike in the radiation around you. So, some people will carry things like this.

As things stand now, 400 millisieverts, not a particularly high number; should not have an impact either in the short term or long term on human health. But there's a lot of waiting to be seen here, making sure those radiation levels don't get high again and making sure the surveillance can continue to be done.

So, we'll stay on top of the story, see what's happening at the reactors. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: All right. hat's Sanjay in Japan.

Sometimes journalists are not impartial observers, by the way. We're people, too, with families. And sometimes these big stories hit home. A case in point is our own Sandra Endo. She's a reporter with CNN News Source. She joins me now from Washington. Her own family is in northeast Japan.

Sandra, tell us your story. We keep talking about this Fukushima nuclear reactor. Your family is in Fukushima.

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ali. That's my father's hometown, a town I visited from time to time as a kid, all the way up to just last year, making a visit to my 90-year-old grandmother. And for days, Ali, we've been trying to get ahold of them. We were just hanging on to one obscure text message we got that Friday when the quake struck saying that everyone was accounted for. But obviously, all the concerns were still there. We hadn't heard her voice. There she is on the left with my late grandfather. And so just hearing her voice for the first time, telling her story about what happened, obviously was a big relief for all of us. My father and my brother and mother on the West Coast, living in Los Angeles, all listening to her story of survival.

And she says the conditions there, Ali, are terrible. Not only do they have to live through the initial quake but now it's just aftershock after aftershock. Luckily for them, their home is pretty structurally sound. A wall did collapse, but my cousins are there, and my aunt who lives in the neighborhood as well have been patching it up to make sure they're bracing themselves for the radiation that's been seeping out.

Also the cold weather. It's starting to snow there. So, they want to just hunker down inside and make sure they're safe. But again, broken dishes she was saying, the TV toppled over, going outside of their house for the first time, seeing the devastation. Their neighborhood just demolished. Some of the homes around them just leveled.

VELSHI: And your grandmother had seen --

ENDO: And also some fatalities.

VELSHI: Right. Your grandmother had seen bodies in the neighborhood.

ENDO: Right. When they went outside initially after the quake, my cousin, who actually works in the Fukushima prefecture, they witnessed some fatalities, some bodies. Obviously, it's a very tight- knit community.

As luck would have it, though, Ali, they did install a new water pump just recently on their property, so they were able to get water. They've been an oasis for that community. People have been coming by, trying to get water. They've been bringing by what food they could find. But right now it's a big scramble.

They did tell us that the power just came back on. The gas is on now. But, of course, with all the evacuees from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, including some of my extended relatives who had to evacuate that area, well, they're all fleeing into Fukushima city itself now. So, gas is very short. There's rations of everything.

So, supply and demand is not equaling out here. They're just hunkering down. They can't go anywhere, and they're very worried about the radiation levels, as you and Sanjay have been talking about. If they do have to evacuate, they don't know where to go, and obviously roads are treacherous as well. So, we're just hoping and waiting to hear. But in her spirit she says she's celebrating life, Ali, and she says she'll have half a glass of sake before she goes to sleep.

VELSHI: Very good. Well, we continue to pray for her. And thanks for letting us know. As Sanjay said, hopefully the radiation levels are going down. If they stay inside as much as they can, maybe they'll be protected from it.

Sandra, good to hear that you found your grandmother and that she's well. We'll, of course, continue to bring you stories of people who we find and some of these success stories because there's so much out there that isn't happy. It's heartbreaking.

All right. Just when nuclear energy seemed to be making a comeback in the United States, the nuclear crisis in Japan hits. Will it and should it put the brakes on new U.S. nuclear energy? I'll talk about it in my "XYZ," next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for my "XYZ."

Today I asked on Facebook and Twitter about whether we, meaning the world, should continue to use and develop nuclear power. Needless to say, there was the normal kneejerk reactions that didn't seem to take into account the new nuances of the crisis that Japan is experiencing.

The fact is that the idea of more nuclear energy was just starting to gain ground in the United States, given the interest in clean, abundant and cheap energy. That nuclear renaissance in America is now in danger. Right now, one-fifth of America's electricity comes from 104 nuclear reactors, half of which were built more than 30 years ago. They're expensive. Companies were loathed to build them, given the tangle of regulations, so the federal government offered loan guarantees to get operators to invest their money. President Obama is asking for $36 billion for nuclear power in this year's proposed budget. Twelve applications right now for construction and licenses.

But real safety issues during unforeseen catastrophic events, like what happened in Japan, will have to be addressed by the industry. We still need alternatives to oil and coal, but we'll have to see whether more nuclear generated electricity is part of our future.

That's it for me now. Brooke Baldwin takes over with "NEWSROOM."