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American Morning
The Morning Buzz
Aired January 23, 2002 - 08:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to "AMERICAN MORNING", take a couple of minutes now and look at some of the other stories showing up on the radar screen. It's time once again for The Morning Buzz.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: It's your favorite time of the day, isn't it Jack?
CAFFERTY: I love the Buzz. Well actually, there's a very -- a very disturbing, I guess, for want of a better way to describe the story in "The New York Times" ...
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The best way to describe it.
CAFFERTY: Yes, about nuclear ...
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: ... power plants again, right?
ZAHN: And weapons plants.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
ZAHN: There now is a concern after September 11, that our weapons plants are very vulnerable for potential suicidal attack, and there is the fear, according to this article, that someone could break in, whether you crash a plane or however the heck you get in there, and assemble a nuclear bomb from materials there, and explode it on the spot.
COOPER: Yes what some experts, I guess, are saying is that they could actually enter like a nuclear facility using conventional weapons, and then either assemble a bomb there, or use a conventional weapon to trigger an explosion. And there's this incredible example that they use, which I didn't know, that a 100-pound mass of uranium dropped on a second 100-pound mass of uranium from just six feet nearly equals the force of the Hiroshima bomb. It's pretty ...
ZAHN: Wow.
COOPER: ... unbelievable.
CAFFERTY: In a way, though, doesn't it sort of sound far fetched? I mean wouldn't you think there'd be some security in place at these places? I mean you couldn't just drive up and get into these weapons plants and ...
COOPER: Well that's the big question. I mean how good is the security at these things, and I guess what they're finding is that it hasn't been all that great up until this point. There's a recommendation out there to try to consolidate 10 sites where some of this material is, sort of into smaller sites, and have the security from, not be from the Energy Department, have it from an independent body. But ...
CAFFERTY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) too, so I guess I withdraw the question about security.
Now we got ...
ZAHN: There's another threat to talk about.
CAFFERTY: What's that?
ZAHN: And that is the threat that Connie Chung can do damage, you know, to the competition as she joins us here at CNN. She's coming to us -- it will be made official later today ...
COOPER: Connie Chung is great. She's really cool.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
ZAHN: ... of ABC News. Now you worked with her?
COOPER: I did, and ...
ZAHN: As I did at CBS.
COOPER: ... and she's really cool, and she's so ...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: ... she's so funny, which you know ...
ZAHN: Anderson, that's not you, right? That's Maury .
COOPER: That is Maury ...
ZAHN: Maury Povich.
COOPER: ... the Maury Povich, her husband. Yes. She's great -- she's got a great sense of humor, which often doesn't come off on TV, but just one on one, I mean I don't know her all that well, but I'm a big fan of hers.
CAFFERTY: She was -- she was at a meeting of high-level executives at NBC one time, way back a long time ago when I worked with her there, and she uttered a quote in this meeting after she'd been listening to this, you know, these vice presidents say nothing and taking a very long time to say it, and she got up and said something in the meeting that I will never forget, and I can't say it here on television, but she has a great sense of humor, and she walked out of the room, and it was -- it was one of the great moments ever. I mean it was just terrific.
ZAHN: We're delighted to be welcoming Connie Chung aboard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
ZAHN: She'll be doing the 8:00 p.m. time slot here ...
COOPER: Good news.
ZAHN: ... at CNN.
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