supplies to the international space station. 3, 2, 1. engines igniting. >> it lifted off from the space center on wednesday. carrying food, water and other equipment for astronauts. >> >> [ ♪ ] >> you know people were dropping like flies. all of those lying closer to the plant. >> we are not seeing one thing off. >> we are paying with our lives. >> lots of men, lots of money, trafficking. >> you cannot promote a technology producing the most toxic substance on earth, and also protect the public. >> "america tonight"

investigates dirty power in america. america is blessed with abundant energy, a mix of fossil fuels, nuclear energies, powers and modern lifestyles, there's a dark style, a hidden cross worn by a small portion of the public. tonight we meet some of those who are paying the price. the first story is about america's largest fossil fuel resource, coal, and the toxic waste it leaves behind. sara hoy talks on a small group of residents that took them on. flies. >> reporter: vicky says this nearby coal-fired power plant is killer her people. >> all those people living closest to the plant went, one after the other. >> reporter: nestled among the sprawling deserts.

the indians live on a reservation an hour north of las vegas. they voted coal ash landfields from a power station. coal ash from the plant on windy days moves across the desert like a toxic sand storm. >> i have to programme it to collect samples every six days. >> reporter: simmonds is on the tribal environmental committee and heads up testing. she and others believe coal ash caused cancer, heart disease and premature deaths among the brother. plant. he was 31 when he passed away. i realized how many sick people there are, people i worked with, miners, the people that lived next to them. it started having a pattern to me. >> we are dying off.

we are paying with our lives. >> i'm proud to say that i'm proud of who i am. >> reporter: formal tribal chairman led the small tribe to take on the energy giant they felt was destroying their land, and harming their people. >> this is where my cousins used to live. they passed away. >> reporter: first stop, the health board of southern nevada. anderson says the door was slammed in his face. the response was you don't have 4,000 people. we are not going to pay attention. enter the sierra club which helped the tribe with lawyers. >> it produces millions of pounds of dioxide. >> reporter: a campaign to close the plant and the owner. >> our children cannot play

outside any more. it just can't. we wanted to keep the kids. >> reporter: had you and your people had enough. >> yes, we had. >> now you see the outcome. the outcome is we'll shut the and. >> according to the lawsuit, 20 tonnes much coal ash are dumped into a landfill. nearly 500,000 gallons of waste water are sent to the ponds. residents say coal ash, which contained mercury, arsenic and other toxins flows on to the reservation, creating an ash cloud, forcing them in doors. the lawsuit claims that waste from the plant contaminated the groundwater, resulting in arsenic levels p 145 times higher than federal drinking standards. barbara researched the harmful

effects of coal ash. >> if i was to give you a glass of arsenic laced water. i could be charged with attempted murder. when arsenic fits into the well water, when chromium 6 gets into the water. when selenium gets into a lake, fish. all the toxic substances get into them and their children - it's not a crime? >> reporter: there's no way to say for certain that it's the land making tribal workers sick. >> we may not be able to say that the plant or this caused the cancer. let's look at it like this. if someone smokes cigarettes, we can't say it was that pack of cigarettes that you smoked that caused cancer. we can say if you have lung cancer and smoke cigarettes, there's a connection. >> mv energy declined a request for an interview but said it

operated the power station in an environmentally responsible manner serita grew up on the res. the 35-year-old mother of five lives with her husband in a house her father built. each suffers from problems, and each uses a form of medication. >> this is what my son took. we have inhalers, nebulaualizers. the sun takes the steroid at night. my daughter has headache medicines. she gets the headaches. >> in the david and goliath battle. the tribal is living. nevada governor. trying to shut down the gold-fired power plant by 2017. an effort supported by reed. >> the dangerous chemicals inside it is literally killing the pilots.

it's no secret that they kill. each year more than 24,000 deaths are triggered in the united states alone. that's why it's time to close the dirty plant. >> reporter: like many reservations, the community is plagued with poverty, unemployment and chomism. the shutdown of their toxic neighbour is welcome relief. no one knows what we go through unless you live here. i'm a mother, one day i'll be a grandmother, i'm glad they will not poison the future generations that hopefully they'll overcome it, and let the children and grandchildren have here as tribal members. >> reporter: the tribe didn't end up shutting down the plant. they turned to solar, controlling areas among the

interstate. change saving $3 million in energy bills. they broke ground on a solar energy plant. the first utility self-solar project on tribal lands. they are not taking chances with mv energy. >> there's still coal and ash, stuff that is out there that is it contaminating our land now. what are we going to do about d? >> reporter: they joined a lawsuit to get the e.p.a. to ensure when the plant closes the coal ash and waste is disposed of properly. >> this is my home. this is it where i grew up. my dad helped build my house. i'm not going to leave my home coming up, the dark underside of america's domestic estic

there's an energy revolution going on in america's heartland. crude oil is flowing from the plains of dakota at a rate recollects thanks to fracking. the united states is expected to overtake saudi arabia as the top oil producer. it is bringing big-town problems to boom towns like willis tonne, north dakota. christopher putzel brings us the story of sex prairie. >> reporter: how would you describe how this looked 20 years ago? >> i don't want to say dead, but i will say probably dying. >> reporter: the sign says is all, williston, north dakota. boom town u.s.a.

over the past five years, williston mayor saw the town come back from the brink of death. >> it's growing faster than any place in the country, it's amazing what oil can do for you. black gold. >> reporter: the race to attract the black gold is evidence everywhere around willis ton . risen carefully, and you can hear liquid money filling up tanks. trucks haul it in tankers to the nearest train depot, and trains pulling the crude rumble through long. >> it's a quality of oil. it had a hugely high success community. boom. >> all of a sudden boom. >> reporter: those at the heart of boom it meant job security. >> per capita, it's some of the highest in the west.

>> reporter: this is a farmer. >> you can subrelease your land and make a little money, right. >> i'm not complaining. >> reporter: not everyone likes williston. >> you hear a lot sighing they wish it never happened, money is not worth it. >> what is the biggest impact. >> there's a lot more fighting. when you start to put a lot of money out there jealousy starts, and soon it's neighbour neighbour. >> reporter: this couple are welders. what do you pay to get here? >> $700 a month and electric. >> reporter: you used to live in a trailer. >> yes. do? >> the only thing i do is go to the gym, stay out of the bars. >> reporter: and you. >> same thing. come up here, make money, and stay out of trouble. >> reporter: i notice what you are wearing.

>> yes. i got in trouble, in a scrap and went to gaol. >> reporter: seems inevitable with this many people in a place, mostly dudes. >> there's a lot of going around. >> reporter: this couple avoid the bar scene. dui is on the rise and there has been a spike in domestic violence. the mix of men and money brought another plague to williston. this undercover footage reveals the underbelly of the oil boom. >> wherever you have lots of men, and lots of money, you'll find prostitution. and you'll find trafficking. >> so what i do is punch in escorts. >> reporter: wendy says the influx of money and a highly

skewed ratio of men to women fuelled a boom in prostitution, often arranged through websites like backpage.com. >> you put in willis phone and see all the girls. >> reporter: but she is not just looking at prostitutes. covered. >> reporter: these looking for victims of sex traffic, women and under age girls. >> i look for anything like a tattoo, a lot of girls under control are branded. branded. >> yes. >> reporter: she came to williston to fight sex boom. >> reporter: why are you passionate about this work? >> first and foremost, i'm a human being, a woman, and experienced things in my life in relation to trafficking. i was trafficked as a child. i ran away at a young age, and turned to a friend for help who was under pimp control. she took me to a party, turned

me out to a pimp. >> reporter: how many girls have here? >> since i've been here, 10. word has gotten out. people trust me. >> reporter: how often do you drive around. >> often. >> she regularly visits hot spot williston, to build relationships. shelter, and a ticket home. >> this here is a huge area for trafficking. >> here at wal-mart. that is so surprising. wherever the money is, and wherever the men are. >> reporter: next stop, nearby hotels, where most of the sex trafficking occurs. >> some of these hotels along the strip have floors that are bought up by pimples, and girls are in the rooms.

the girls - there's consequences for that. north dakota officials admit that women and children are caught up in trafficking, but their clan slim. shelters are overflowing. >> kills me to know that girls are trafficking. >> they raise awareness. they'll be able to offer help. >> where are you headed now? >> down near the strip clubs, i'm holding a self-defence class for the girls. the class is tomorrow, i want to remind the girls. >> reporter: reinforcements arrive, she continues her mission to protect the victims from the north dakota oil boom. north dakota's black gold will flow for decades to come. fuelling a drive for energy independence. the boom has brought big city problems to the farming downs, and life here may never be the same when we return, the unlikely

comeback of a form of energy many consider too

>> katrina was rea

touch. ina was rea in our final story we look at a form of energy many americans consider dangerous and obsolete, particularly after the triple melt down from the fukushima nuclear plant. there's a small growing number believing they can face global catastrophe. ichael oku with the story. >> three years after the power plant closed, a group of the activists gathered. do you want to see this plant shut down and every nuclear

power plant shut down? >> i want every nuclear power plant in the world shut down today. >> reporter: i saw first hand what happens when nuclear energy goes wrong. the meter showing 3.2 microbursts of radiation, the japan. >> erie ghost towns on a nation's consciousness. that ongoing disaster an ocean away left many americans skittish about nuclear power. next an area that had been popular. and the film "china syndrome", in 1979 fuelled nuclear fears.

you cannot promote a technology producing the most toxic place on earth. polls show half americans impose increasing nuclear energy, 75% don't think the government should build plants. now a growing movement things america is wrong. we caught up as they checked out the impact of the deab low plant. i grew up with a family. >> reporter: a more sinister threat, catastrophic climate change caused them to consider. >> the thing that snapped us out of it was trying to figure out

how to climate change. >> reporter: with growing concentrations of carbon dioxide reaching a point of no return, he doesn't believe renewables are up to test. >> you have to look for ways producing large quant days. this is one of a small but influential groups of opponents, scientists and innovators, coming out in favour of nuclear energy. how big a movement would you say this is. this is growing. four of the country's climates claim on them to support the next generation with power. i get emails every week from people that are excited about an environmental vision recognising the need for a serious advanced

technology like nuclear. >> what helped shallenburger's conversion is what was learnt from the disaster. >> nuclear was safer after three mile island, and fukushima, you saw the reaction of nuclear power operators, to take a look at tsunami and earthquake risks. >> many have fought for some time to have nuclear knowledged as a green source of energy. it is a very environmentally generated. >> i can see people listening to you, rolling their eyes saying, maple, did you here what you said. >> i would encourage them to do more homework on this. >> jeff says a new generation of reactors like the westinghouse a.p. 1,000 eliminated many of the problems that led to the fukushima disaster.

the backup system doesn't rely reactor. >> we use laws of nature, gravity, condensation and conviction to help -- conviction to help mitigate the problems we had at fukushima. >> reporter: westinghouse is building thousands of systems. the new design requires a constant flow of water to the reactor core to prevent melt down. the next generation of reactors will make it safer. i set out to essentially, yes. save the world with nuclear power. this is part of a new generation of nuclear enthusiast, environmentalists.

at 14, wilson became the youngest person ever to create nuclear fusion. >> you keep yellowcake in your lab. >> the process was stopped. i collect all kinds of radioactive things. a nuclear weapon, the government lost in the '50s. people collect baseball cards. i collect radioactive material. >> at 19 wilson believes the future of nuclear is in small-scale reactors that can't melt down like today's designs. >> for example, earthquakes. where does the cooling water go. what is cooling this? nothing. reactor melts down. >> because wilson's reactor is using motelen salt, and it is sealed, you can train the contents. into a tank where nuclear tanks can't take place.

in no situation properly engineered should it release radioactivy. government gave half a billion to companies developing similar technology. wilson believes his design is behind the market in five years. nuclear power has a lot of innovation. if we can go forward, saving lives is saving the planet using nuclear energy. that, in a way you could redeem it. they deserve that. >> reporter: for many, nuclear energy remains beyond. what do you say to the activists time. question. >> without question. >> when we produce something that is so toxic and lethal as nuclear waste. it's a foul deed against our

living wrong. >> one critic told us directly those who changed their mind about nuclear energy, what would you say to that person. >> i said i'm trying to do the same thing, trying to create a world where all live. we live in a world where there's risks in a world around that. in a world around us. >> reporter: for a growing chorus of environmentalists, the nuclear option is the lesser risk as america looks to the marge future, it faces new opportunities and new dangers. thank you for joining us for an "america tonight" special investigation. dirty power. >> a fourteen-year-old... murdered.

>> whistling at a white woman... in mississippi? >> america tonight opens the case... >> never thought that he would be killed for that. >> that started the push for racial justice. >> that was the first step in the modern civil rights movement. >> could new evidence uncover the truth about that gruesome night? >> i wanted people to hear the true story of till. >> protestors are gathering... >> there's an air of tension right now... >> the crowd chanting for democracy... >> this is another significant development... >> we have an exclusive story tonight, and we go live...

>> thailand says it will ask interpol to seven for the suspects behind an attack at a bangkok shrine. you are watching al jazeera. coming up in the next half hour, israel's supreme court suspends the detention of a man who suffered brain damage after a prolonged hunger strike. more you a boos abuse allegatio. and fires continue to