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tv   Nightline  ABC  March 15, 2011 11:35pm-12:00am PDT

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tonight on "nightline," race against time. nuclear technicians work frantically to cool radioactive rods after a series of explosions. there is confusion and fear in japan tonight. america joins the rescue. we're headed out to the "uss ronald reagan," now running search and rescue flights off the japanese coast, despite the risk of drifting radiation. we're getting an exclusive look into the it effort. and domestic concerns. retailers set out of iodide tab lets as americans stock up, fearful of what's happening in japan could happen here. with u.s. nuclear reactors built atop fault lines, how big is the risk? >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with
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terry moran and cynthia mcfadden in new york city and bill weir in japan, this is "nightline," march 15th, 2011. >> and good evening from the atsugi naval air station. it is wednesday afternoon here in japan. we're waiting to board that flight to the "uss ronald reagan," the massive u.s. aircraft carrier off the coast of tsunami-ravaged japan. more on that in a moment. first, the most pressing news, the fear of nuclear fallout from that ravaged fukushima daiichi power plant, where last night another explosion and fire prompted the prime minister to take to the national airwaves with this warning. "the leaked radiation level is now rather high and there is a high chance for further leakage from now on." and for the first time tonight, the japanese confirm that all three containment warms in the shattered reactor have been
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damaged, which means radiation leakage is almost certain. inside the plant, 75 0 technicians were told to lead, and only 50 remained, staying behind to try to get the reactor back under control to avoid a chernobyl-like disaster. they used fire pumps to flood the reactors with water to cool the nuclear core. b hours later, the radiation levels spiked so high, they stopped work altogether, at least for now. but those who live within the 12-mile evacuation radius, some 136,000 people, had to flee. and now more than a half a million are homeless. in tokyo, the fear is palpable. people wear radiation badges and pop iodide pills. and if you followed our journey yesterday, you know that fear of a nuclear wind is the last thing
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this country needs after a week when millions of lives changed for the worst. the sights and sounds and smells up in the tsunami zone are absolutely soul-crushing. entire villages turned into shattered, muddy slop. but soon, you become numb to all the physical devastation. but it's impossible to brace against the emotional sledge hammer found at one of the only working hospitals next to the epicenter. here we found a tent filled with lists of names, people who came to seek treatment and outside that tent, a heartbreaking line of folks desperate to find proof of life for loved ones gone missing since the quake. there were moments of brief joy. you found each other here just now? like a reunion between these two sisters. but soon, the sound of a chopper blade would fill the air. another victim would arrive. we saw one who looked like he had been pulled from the mud just moments before. while on the coast, another small glimpse of hope, this
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21-year-old man now being carried to safety. and it is these kind of victims that are first on the mind of the navy and marines scrambling to help since the tragedy. bringing bread, rice, water, flying search and rescue missions into the remote villages of the northeast. our team boarded a transport plane filled with 10,000 pounds of food, water and diapers bound for the "uss reagan." but half an hour after takeoff, bad weather around the ship forced us to turn back to the base. and that weather is having a frustrating effect on the rescue efforts as well today. and, of course, those on the "reagan" and other destroyers are doing their jobs with the very real possibility of rad radioactive contamination. in fact, we'll be sharing the ship with fresh contamination teams who help take readings and scrub down rescue teams as they come back to the boat. nhk is now reporting that the
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number of dead and missing has exceeded 10,000. and among the survivors, post-traumatic stress is the norm. as people like these american teachers count their blessings while dealing with the shock of it all. >> i didn't quite feel real at the time. i don't want to die, i don't want to die. kind of just running on fear at the moment, which i never thought i'd have to deal with. but it was still terrifying once we got up to the top. we didn't know if more water was going to come, if there was going to be another tsunami. we were kind of at the highest point we could get so the whole evening was kind of terrifying not knowing if we were high enough. >> i wish i had a picture of what it used to look like as a beautiful, healthy town. it was probably the most devastating thing i've ever seen. and, you know, i didn't lose my home, i didn't possibly lose a family member, so it was just overwhelming and i think everyone was so shocked and just couldn't believe what had
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happened. >> still, so many stories of heartbreak and stress. we're hoping to see more encouraging rescue stories, led by the americans, once we get out to the "uss reagan." and while this is a huge project, that's first on the mind of american troops. they could use some seriously good pr in this country. the japanese have grown less tolerant of the american presence here. some 50,000 troops here these days and even the last prime minister was forced to resign in shame when he failed on a promise to move a big american base off okinawa. so, perhaps those perceptions could change, if the japanese could see americans saving lives by the hour. and when we come back, could it happen in america? we'll take a look at u.s. nuclear plants built on fault lines and ask, how safe are they really? host: could switching to geico really save you
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a beautiful steering wheel is great. but only if the dash it's attached to is equally beautiful. so we made sure it was. but what's the point of a beautiful dash if the seats aren't beautiful, too? so we made sure they were. but we couldn't stop there, so we kept going and going. and before we knew it, we had a 2011 jeep grand cherokee.
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there's a pretty good chance that you power your life thanks to one of the 104 nuclear power plants built in 31 states across america. some of them built on seismic fault lines you may have never heard of before. so, the obvious question these days, how strong are they? could they survive a 9.0 earthquake like the one that has decembimated japan? for a look at just that question, here's david wright. >> reporter: within the past year, major earthquakes on both sides of the pacific. first chile, then new zealand.
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now japan. plot those points on the map and all the way other at the other corner of that giant pacific plate, a major quake is overdue, right here in california. many californians tend to be blase about the big one. fatalistic, like barber jerry rodriguez. >> you don't have control of it, you can't worry about it. so, you see it, you hope it doesn't happen in your lifetime or ever. >> reporter: but the new images from japan have given the doomsday earthquake scenario new urgency, with an added twist. the threat that a quake might be followed by a nuclear meltdown. >> about 75 million americans live in earthquake-prone areas. and that is a problem. our systems are clearly not ready to respond to large-scale disasters like this. in fact, we're substantially less ready than japan. >> reporter: that's a real concern in a state that sits astride several major fault
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lines and has four nuclear reactors, one of them, this one, smack on the coast between los angeles and san diego. is this plant safe? >> absolutely. >> reporter: even in the middle of earthquake country? >> with all the design basis information and all the designs that are put into this plant, this plant is absolutely safe. >> reporter: but in nearby san clemente, they are revuing the backup plan just in case the city has sirens in town and on the beach, warning residents to evacuate in case of tsunamis or nuclear meltdown. it's part of jen tucker's job to mail out potassium iodide pills to every local resident in the event of nuclear fallout. >> i've seen increased concern. i've seen an increased number of requests for potassium iodide. >> reporter: in fact, there's been a run on these tablets meant to protect against radiation poisoning. >> i don't have any right now and don't have a date when i will have it available. >> this is the nuclear
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industry's worst nightmare. just as they were convincing us that nuclear power was clean and safe, japan loses control of five, maybe more, nuclear reactors. >> reporter: here, they built a 30-foot sea wall to protect against possible tsunamis. the reactors themselves are protected by four feet of concrete and eight inches of galvanized steel. so, is this plant stronger than the one in japan? >> it would be premature to talk about strength of a plant. >> reporter: is it safer? >> as i mention before, this plant is completely safe. >> reporter: japan's daiichi plant the reactors and the containment vessels appear to have withstood the quake and the tsunami. the problem was, that one-two punch knocked out the power and disrupted the backup generators, a scenario known in the industry as a station blackout. >> there are many pathways to station blackout at atomic reactors here in the united
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states. snap mips could do it, tornadoes, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, simple loss of the grid, like the northeast blackout of 2003. >> reporter: nuclear scientists say the japanese power plant was left only with battery power to cool the reactors down. the batteries, designed to last 8 to 12 hours. apparently not long enough. >> we have numerous and very, you know, assorted coping strategies for deeming with that. >> reporter: at us reactors, the backup batteries typically last four to eight hours. but others have additional con ten gin si plans in place for backup generators in case the generators on identisite should. >> for a preplan to bring that generator onto the site, put it into operation, that certainly gives me a feeling of comfort. >> reporter: you have other generators parked to pull in? >> absolutely. >> reporter: it's impossible to predict the big one. but seismologists say there's a 99% chance california will be
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hit by a major earthquake sometime in the next 30 years. steve, who runs a tiki carving business five miles from the plant, isn't convinced the people here are prepared. >> it makes me nervous when something this drastic happens, especially -- it doesn't seem like we're ever prepared for anything this catastrophic. >> reporter: even before it is clear what the fallout will be in japan, nuclear operators and regulators here in the u.s. are already having to do damage control. i'm david wright for "nightline" in southern california. >> our thanks to david wright for that. when we come back, a story of survival and reunion. how one phone call from one of our cell phones helped reunite one american family. ♪
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if you wonder if your fellow americans are concerned about nuclear fallout from japan, just check out amazon.com these days, where there is a run on iodide pills and geiger counters and emergency kits. s perts, by the way, say all of that is unnecessary at this point. but we sent out dan harris out to check out just how much radiation we encounter on a daily basic. >> reporter: the term rad radioactive has come to be sin no, ma'am mouse with bad or dangerous, like a nuclear power plant on an x-ray, which has to be handled with extreme care. the truth is, we are surrounded
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by radiation. to illustrate the point, we got ahold of this geiger counter, and as you can see, even right here in the middle of central park, there is always a background level of radiation. and look at this. and i take the instrument and put it up to my own body, it goes up slightly, and that's because all of us are emitting radiation all the time. check this out. we're going to put this on some bananas, which contain potassium, which you need to live, but is also radioactive, and the counter goes up. here's what happens when we go up to this monument of christopher columbus. it's made obviout of granite. and as you can see, the meter is pretty much pinning. and to see the needle in the geiger counter really get pinned, you need to go into grand central station, which we did tonight with dr. eric hall from columbia university. this whole place is made of granite and marble. both of which are radioactive.
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tens of thousands of people walk through that hall every day. >> that's right. >> reporter: are they at risk of getting sick? >> no. the doses are very, very smam. >> reporter: another place where you are regularly exposed to radiation? air travel. because you are closer to the radiation of outer space. every year, each of us is exposed to about 3.5 millisieverts, that's the technical term, of radiation. that's about 67 chest x-rays. in order to get radiation sickness, you need to be exposed to 1,000 millisieverts at once. and, for most people, a fatal dose is about five times that. to put this all in perspective, the radiation levels at the scene of the fire at the nuclear power plant in japan reached about 400 millisieverts. meaning you would have had to sit there for about 2 1/2 hours to get sick. so, when you see those pictures out of japan, you don't need to worry about your own safety, but
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of course, we should all be concerned for the japanese. for "nightline" this is dan harris in new york. >> thanks to dan harris for that. and before we go, one of the few nice notes we've been able to witness here in japan. yesterday, i met a woman who had american family and wanted them so badly to know she had survived the tsunami that had ruined her house. so, i left a message for her sister and today, she got that message. amid the devastation, we found a few stories of hope last night. elsa, who has six relatives in america. and desperately wants her sister to know she's okay. hi, this message is from elana. this is bill weir from abc news, i'm in northern japan right now and i just saw your sister elsa and she's okay and she wanted you to know that and that she loves you. >> reporter: she never heard our voicemail. so, today, we tracked her and her daughter down to give her the details of our meeting with
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elsa. this is bill weir with abc news, i met your sister elsa in japan yesterday. >> oh, my god. thank you. thank you, lord. >> reporter: yeah, she's okay. she's in good health. the rest of the family is okay. >> i'm so glad you found her. >> reporter: she was telling me that just minutes before the tsunami, she went to the hospital to get her medicine and that's what saved her life. >> oh, really? >> reporter: she wants you to know that she's fine and she loves you. >> oh, i'm glad. i love them, and i love you, too, you found my sister. it's a real miracle, you know? >> reporter: she's going to need your help at some point because the house is gone, but for the moment, she's safe and alive, and that's -- >> oh, good. >> reporter: one small rare moment of sheer joy and relief. what we wouldn't give for a lot more moments like that from this country. thank you for watching abc news. we certainly hope you'll check out "good morning america" for the latest on the

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