captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: a fire in an overcrowded honduran prison killed hundreds of inmates many of them burned or suffocated. good evening, i'm gwen ifill. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the "newshour" tonight: margaret warner gets the latest on one of the deadliest prison fires in a century from nicholas casey of the "wall street journal." >> ifill: then, we turn to the g.o.p. presidential race, where former pennsylvania senator rick santorum is breaking into the lead. >> brown: we get two views on the safety and wisdom of building the nation's first new nuclear reactors in more than three decades. >> ifill: from tunisia, we have a report on the economic and political struggles of a fledgling democracy one year

after the revolution that sparked the arab spring. >> what happened is it gave people the belief that someone is not as only nip at the present time as they thought they are. libya has a real shot as building a real democratic society. >> brown: and ray suarez examines the efforts to resolve a critical drug shortage, involving a treatment for childhood leukemia. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting.

and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: fire engulfed a 1940s- era prison in honduras overnight. by late today, 272 inmates were confirmed dead, but officials said the number was expected to go much higher. more than 450 others escaped with their lives. margaret warner has our story. >> warner: this shaky cell phone video captured the fearful scenes-- flames raging into the night sky. honduran television showed the fast-moving blaze burning out of control at a prison. workers at a nearby hotel said it took 20 minutes to 30 minutes for the first fire crews to arrive. even then, firefighters said at least 100 inmates died in their cells, screaming for help. some inmates were set free by guards, rescuers carried

injured prisoners outside. many of those died later of burns and smoke inhalation. in short order, grieving relatives gathered outside the prison in comayagua, a city in central honduras, about 45 miles north of the capital tegucigalpa. as dawn came, people tried to storm the gates of the prison to recover remains of their loved ones. some threw rocks before being pushed back by security officers. the president of the central american nation porfirio lobo went on television, with condolences and a promise of aid. >> ( translated ): this is a very painful day for honduras. we are very sorry about what happened and i want to express my solidarity with the relatives of those who lost their life in the prison in comayagua. we are going to give all the medical assistance to the injured. >> warner: the cause of the fire remained in question. some survivors said an inmate had screamed "we will all die here!" and then, set his mattress ablaze in his cell.

the governor of comayagua state as rescue workers removed the bodies, president lobo suspended the officials in charge of the prison, and vowed to get answers. >> ( translated ): preliminarily, i have asked the we will carry out a full investigation to find out what caused this sad and unacceptable tragedy and to find those responsible. it will be an independent investigation monitored by international observers. >> warner: honduran prisons have long been notorious for overcrowding and violence. the one in comayagua reportedly was built for 400 people, but housed more than 800. there have been other deadly prison fires. in 2004, a fire at state prison near tegucigalpa killed more than 100 inmates. for more on the fire we turn to nicholas casey, the "wall street journal's" latin american corespondent based in mexico city. nicholas, welcome. first of all, ma what's the latest on the number of people who actually died in this fire and how many escaped? >> it looks like there might be as many as 364 people who died,

which is a mass i have number of people for a prison that had just under 900 people in it. so we're talking about more than a third of the people in the prison weren't able to get out. a place that clearly didn't have an escape plan for how someone would get out if there was a time of fire or if that plan was there it wasn't implemented properly. basically one of the biggest numbers of people who were killed in a prison fire in central america or, frankly, anywhere in the world in recent years. >> warner: and what have you been able to piece together about why so many prisoners remain locked in their cells. >> this is common across latin america. the prison system isn't like what enough the u.s. it's not very well regulate, it's not very well monitored. it's no surprise that when there was a fire that took place no one seemed to know where the key was. there wasn't any plan for how to get the prisoners out of these cells and into safety.

a lot of these prisons are run by organized crime groups that are in central america. a lot of the wardens-- we don't know the case in this prison here-- themselves are involved in organized crime and many of the prisoners are continuing to do drug rackets or other crime activities if inside the prison. so these aren't aren't the prisons that have, you know, sort of pristine floors and uniforms that you might expect if the u.s. or western world. >> warner: or automatic door lock releases. >> or any of those things, yeah. >> warner: i know you talked to people down there today. what do they say about the reports that an inmate deliberately set the fire? >> i don't think anybody's certain. it's going to be sometime before all the details come out. there have been reports that someone had a key?

there were reports people were hearing screaming. it's not clear what has happened. there have been prison riots in honduras but it's turned out that weren't really riots completely as much as prison guards themselves were shooting at the people inside causing the majority of the deaths. so we're going to see in coming months what actually happened there. provided that the honduran justice system is able to make some progress in piecing this one together. and honduras is a country with really weak institutions so even that that's not guaranteed. war swore what is responsible for this incredible overcrowding? i mean, of course, every country has overcrowded prisons, or most do. but what are the particular circumstances in honduras? >> well, what's going on in honduras, and not just that country but guatemala, el salvador. a lot of the countries in the northern part of central america-- to a degree this also includes mexico-- is that they're fighting a big fight against drug traffickers right now but they don't have a lot of

resources to do that so a lot of the resources are going into actually fighting the crime on the streets. catching the bad guys who are committing these crimes. if you think about it, when you decide what your budget is going to be for crime fighting, no one really wants to build jails. people want to catch the bad guys so the situation that a lot of these countries have found themselves in not just this year but previous years, too, is that they've got a lot of criminals and they don't have any place to put them. they also don't have any money to build jails to put them in so they end up putting them in the same jail which is were already there which become overcrowded and then prone to an incident like this. >> warner: i know you talked to some political figures down there. some human rights folks. first of all, what was their reaction to this and, secondly, did they think anything's going to change as a result? >> well, i talked to one of the honduran congressmen this afternoon and one of the things he said, which i think was really striking, was that he wasn't surprised that this had happened. this was an issue that everybody

in honduras and astroses central america knows is a huge issue. since they've known they haven't been able to do that much about it because they're not operating on a big budget. he called this a huge national tragedy and i think just as important he said think about the fact that, you know, a lot of people will try to move on from this just because it was prisoners. this is a really bad event to have happened in honduras regardless of whether these were completely innocent people or criminals. this was the case of a government which couldn't fight the second end of its drug war, which is taking care of and rehabilitating the people it put in jail. whether this changes or not in honduras, it's not clear. this is a government that is now trying to raise a tax to tight the drug war but it's not clear whether that's going to be enough noun do what they need to do. they don't receive a whole lot of assistance from the u.s. they have a small tax base in their country. it's not a really good recipe for success there. >> warner: well, nicholas casey, "wall street journal," thank you so much. >> thanks, margaret.

>> brown: still to come on the "newshour": the santorum surge; a nuclear plant debate; tunisia's transition to democracy and a critical cancer drug in short supply. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: congressional negotiators worked today to dot the "i"s and cross the "t"s on extending the payroll tax cut through the end of this year. the $100 billion cost will be added to the national debt, after house republicans dropped a demand for offsetting spending cuts. house speaker john boehner: >> we were not going to allow the democrats to continue to play political games and raise taxes on working americans. so we made a decision to bring them to the table so the games would stop and we would get this work done. i think there's an agreement in principle but there are a lot of details that are yet to be worked out. i'm hopeful that that will be wrapped up today. the tentative deal would also renew long-term jobless benefits and block a cut in medicare

payments to doctors costing another $50 billion. those provisions would be paid for by auctioning broadcast airwaves to wireless companies and having federal workers contribute more to their pensions. president obama welcomed the deal today, as he spoke in milwaukee. >> this tax cut means that the typical american family will see an extra $40 in every paycheck this year. and that's going to help speed up this recovery. it will make a real difference in the lives of millions of people and as soon as congress sends me that extension of tax cuts and unemployment insurance to my desk, i will sign it right away. >> sreenivasan: final votes on the package could come on friday. iran made claims today of sweeping progress in its efforts to produce nuclear fuel. the announcements came even as the tehran government made new diplomatic overtures. we have a report narrated by jonathan miller of "independent television news." >> reporter: president mahmoud ahmadinejad whispered a prayer

and kissed a koran as a now- dwindling circle of nuclear- scientists unveiled iran's new home-made fuel rod. praise be to the prophet and his family, they say. "how many of these have we got?" asked the president. "well, we'll have a new one every month," the man in the mask said. "soon we won't need the russians." they lowered the rod into the heart of the research reactor. this development does not bring iran any closer to building a bomb; this place produces radio isotopes for nuclear medicine; but if tehran is trying to convince the world that its purpose is peaceful, no one's buying it. particularly as the president also presided over the unveiling, today, via videolink, of a new generation of centrifuges for enriching uranium-- all carried live on state tv.

their nation is isolated. they're suffering from sanctions. prices are rising, credit tightening, currency plummeting. the tehran regime thinks its brinksmanship gives it leverage. it's written to the e.u. offering to resume stalled nuclear talks. for president ahmadinejad, this is a defiant projection of power and prestige. "times have changed" he said today. "the world has changed. the age of imperialism is over. we will continue along this chosen path." >> sreenivasan: in another development, iranian state tv reported six european nations have been put on notice that their supplies of iranian oil will be cut off. it would be retaliation for new, european sanctions that take effect in july. in syria, there was no let-up in the military assault on homs. a huge cloud of smoke rose above the skyline as syrian artillery bombarded the city again. government troops and rebel soldiers battled in the streets. at the same time, president bashar al assad promised a referendum this month on a new

constitution, allowing for a multi-party system. but the opposition demanded again that assad step down. the deep freeze across eastern europe has now claimed more than 650 lives. that new count came today after more than two weeks of blizzards and frigid temperatures. in romania, snow-bound communities had to rely on a man flying a motorized parachute plane for supplies. some 23,000 romanians have been cut off by snow drifts blocking roads and rails. greece made progress today toward getting the rest of europe to accept its promised austerity measures. greek political leaders gave written assurances that they will enforce the cuts. even so, the chairman of the eurozone finance ministers called for additional guarantees. in athens, the greek finance minister charged that richer nations are looking for a reason not to do the bailout. >> ( translated ): there are now clearly powers inside europe that are playing with fire because they believe the october 26 decisions of the european council may not be implemented,

not adhering to the conditions already set out, and who would like to see greece outside the eurozone. >> sreenivasan: the euro-zone ministers meet on monday to consider approval of the $170 billion bailout. greece needs the funding to avoid defaulting on bond payments in late march. the war of wills over the greece bailout put wall street in a selling mood. the dow jones industrial average lost 97 points to close just under 12,781-- its worst day so far this year. the nasdaq fell 16 points to close below 2,916. the latest look at world hunger laid out stark new findings today. a report by the charity "save the children" found chronic malnutrition kills five children every minute or two million every year. it also said 450 million children are at risk of permanent damage from poor nutrition in the next 15 years. most of the hardest hit countries were in africa. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to gwen. >> ifill: and to the political campaign. a series of new national polls

finds former pennsylvania senator rick santorum has become a serious new challenger to perennial frontrunner mitt romney, throwing yet another twist into a tortured race. it's hard to argue that the last eight days have not been good for rick santorum. only one week after the former pennsylvania senator swept three nominating contests on a single day, several national polls now show him in a new dead heat with mitt romney. a "new york times" -cbs news survey puts santorum at 30%, with romney at 27%. the three-point margin falls within the poll's sampling error. santorum spent today campaigning in north dakota, which holds its caucuses in march that follows a visit yesterday to idaho. >> two months ago, i said don't pay attention to the polls. now that we're doing well in the polls i'm not going to say hey everybody, pay attention to the polls. polls come and polls go. we need to go out and earn it one state at a time. >> ifill: one state in

santorum's sites: michigan, where the former massachusetts governor was born and raised. until this week, romney was the prohibitive favorite headed into that february 28 primary in part because his father was once michigan governor. but santorum announced plans today to buy television ad time in michigan and five other states. this ad, released today, takes aim squarely at romney. >> mitt romney's negative attack machine is back on full throttle. this time romney's firing his mud at rick santorum. and in the end mitt romney's ugly attacks are going to backfire. >> ifill: the pro-romney super pac restore our future is punching back with an ad targeting santorum's congressional record. >> how did rick santorum actually vote? santorum voted to raise the debt limit five times, and for billions in wasteful projects, including the "bridge to nowhere." >> ifill: romney campaigns in his home state tonight, while santorum will be there tomorrow, addressing the detroit economic

club. with more on santorum's rise and the battle for michigan voters, we are joined from east lansing by bill ballenger, editor of the "inside michigan politics" newsletter, and here, by dan balz of the "washington post." bill ballenger, the most surprising part of this latest switch in leads is rick santorum in michigan. how's he really doing there? >> it's amazing. he has no presence or history here in michigan at all but he's the unromney. he's the anti-romney within the republican party right now and a poll marketing resource group today showed him ahead by 10 points. that is in sync with three other polls that have come out over the last three days that show him leading mitt romney by anywhere from seven to 13 points. >> ifill: is he suddenly surging ahead here because of something that mitt romney didn't do? is he not taking care of the home base? >> mitt romney has done everything right in tray

traditional terms, gwen. that's the agonizing part of it for mitt romney. he must be tearing his hair out. he's raised more money here. he won the state here over john mccain four years ago. i think what is happening is these campaigns are being nationalized. people here are affected as they are in any other state or nationally as to what's going on over the last three months in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, florida. they're picking up on it and it doesn't really make any difference what mitt romney has done up to this time or what rick santorum has not done in michigan. rick santorum is ahead and mitt romney is going to have to fight for his life to win this state in two weeks. >> ifill: fight for his life. let's talk about the national look at this, dan. is it as topsy-turvy as it is in michigan? >> it is. if you look at the whole series

of polls-- you cited one-- but there are a whole series that show rick santorum roughly even or slightly ahead of governor romney in the national polls and the "post" and abc had a poll ten days ago and it showed romney with a healthy lead and santorum 18 points behind. so the swings in this race are unlike anything we've ever seen and i think it reflects partly what bill said, that there is a block within the republican electorate that is still resistant to supporting mitt romney and they have moved from candidate to candidate to candidate looking for someone that they can kind of get behind and every time that person rises up, whether it was governor perry or newt gingrich or others, the romney campaign has taken aim at them. they've thrown millions of dollars in negative ads at each of them and they have knocked them down and so the question is, will that happen with rick santorum. >> ifill: dab, tell me what it is these voters are listening for. they're not, i assume, monolithic. is it something in santorum's message that's making them think

"oh, yeah, i hadn't heard that, i'll support this guy"? >> i think it's two things. one there is genuine distrust about whether romney is truly conservative. whether they really believe he is the conservative he claims to be. i think that's a lot of it. the second is up to now rick santorum has been quite presentable to them in the way he's appeared in the debates which is mostly now they know him. i think what's important at this point to remember that s that most republican voters don't know him very well and they're going to get to know him a lot better over the next couple weeks. >> ifill: for better or worse depending on how these television ads play out. >> and will he be able to stand up to it when the romney team comes after him and will he have the with all, the resources, the infrastructure, to fend off these attacks. >> ifill: when we think about michigan politics right now, bill, we think about the economy, the auto industry rescue and i wonder the degree to which these candidates disagree or don't agree or have a record on these issues, whether that is driving this

latest change of fortune in michigan. >> it may be to a certain extent. the poll we took showed that among people who really care about jobs and economic growth, romney is a little bit ahead of santorum. but in every other category, including taxes, spending, debt, santorum is ahead and obviously he's way ahead on the social, cultural issues. one thing to keep in mind: nearly half the voters in this primary coming up on february 28 strongly support the tea party. so they're either members of the tea party or they strongly support it and among tea party voters santorum has a huge 51% to 22% lead over romney. so romney can catch up. he did four years ago he trailed john mccain with a week to go in michigan and he pulled out a victory. he can do it again. but, as dan said, it may have to be with negative ads like florida against gingrich. >> ifill: sorry, bill, to interrupt you. but there's also another thing.

there's an open primary in michigan which means democrats, independents, anybody can vote. is that an opportunity to create more mischief which isn't showing up in the polls? >> i think it is. you're absolutely right. i think as much as a quarter of the vote will come from democrats and independents. you don't register by party in michigan. the democrats have basically given a signal that even though they're going to have caucuses to pick their delegates to their national convention in may, they won't penalize people who vote in the primary. i don't think democrats and independents voting in the primary in michigan for a republican primary are going to say "we want to help mitt romney." i think they'd like to cause him some grief. i think they'd like to discombobulate the michigan republican party. and there may be some angry independent and democratic voters who don't like mitt romney's stand on the auto bailout by the federal government and might want to go in and make some mischief. >> ifill: he advocated for a structured bankruptcy.

dan, where is newt going pitch from all of this? it seems last time we were talking about someone coming from behind then suddenly overtaking romney. he benefited from it. why isn't he benefiting now? >> well, i think he was hurt by the loss in florida. he was hurt by nevada. i think he was hurt by the performance the night of the nevada caucuses when he came out and rather than doing a concession speech had a press conference in which he appeared to be pretty angry at governor romney. he didn't really compete hard in the three states that rick santorum won a week ago. in part because they weren't awarding delegates. and i think that he has in part decided to let rick santorum fight it out in michigan with romney and he's pointing towards some of the supertuesday states in the south. i think it's... i think it's newt gingrich's calculation that anything that hurts mitt romney at this point and keeps the race moving is good for everybody who's left. and he has no intention of getting out. >> ifill: but he's not competing in michigan, either. >> not hard at this point.

>> ifill: which kind of helps santorum a little bit. let me ask you this briefly because it's a question about the quickness of this race. how quickly this thing has been turning around. how much does that help an underdog and how much does that hurt a front-runner, dan? >> well, i think it's discomforting for everybody because there is such weak allegiance among a big part of the republican party at this point for any candidate that the mood swings, if you will, within the party create problems for both the people who are benefiting from them and the people who are not. you almost have to kind of say we're going to run the race we think is the right race to run until it's clear that we can't do that. and the romney campaign may be reaching that point if they were to lose michigan, which i'm not necessarily predicting they're going to do. but as bill said, santorum right now has the lead. >> ifill: bill, you've been covering michigan for a long time. have you seen mood swings like this before? >> never. really, this is unprecedented. i think everything dan says is right. i think we wouldn't be seeing mood swings if romney had put

together a steady winning streak. but he can't seem to do it. he can't close the deal and as long as different people keep winning different states, the mood goes up and down and, frankly, gwen, to answer your question, i think that helps the underdog. i think it helps santorum. >> ifill: bill ballenger of inside michigan politics, dan balz of the "washington post," thank you both very much. >> brown: now, a big move forward for nuclear power in the u.s. this construction site in eastern georgia will house the nation's first new commercial nuclear reactors in decades. they're to be built at the plant vogtle facility, where two existing reactors have operated since the late 1980s. the plant is situated near waynesboro, georgia, just 34 miles southeast of augusta and 170 miles east of atlanta. u.s. energy secretary steven chu

visited the site today to see the work in progress. basic construction had begun more than a year ago, anticipating that the nuclear regulatory commission would license the new reactors, which it did last week. they're the first ones approved since 1978, the year before the partial meltdown at three mile island in pennsylvania. president obama called again for more nuclear energy as part of an overall national strategy in his state of the union address last year: >> by 2035, 80% of americas electricity will come from clean energy sources. ( applause ) some folks want wind and solar. others want nuclear, clean coal and natural gas. to meet this goal, we will need them all and i urge democrats >> brown: today, there are 104

commercial reactors in operation at 65 nuclear power plants nationwide. all told, nuclear power provides 20% of the country's total electricity and 8% of energy consumption from all sources. but the earthquake and tsunami in japan last year underscored the potential dangers, when reactors at the fukushima daiichi plant suffered partial meltdowns. the damage released dangerous levels of radiation and led to mass evacuations that emptied the countryside for miles around. the disaster also sparked new questions about the safety of america's aging nuclear facilities. one of those is indian point, in buchanan, new york, whose license to operate two reactors is soon to expire. "newshour" science correspondent miles o'brien reported on the debate there, on the pbs program "frontline", last month. >> a fukushima-scale accident here, less than 50 miles from the lower tip of manhattan,

would likely mark the end of the u.s. nuclear industry. 17 million people live within 50 miles of this plant. and that's one reason plant operator entergy's application for a 20-year renewal is proving so controversial. >> brown: for now, though, the work at plant vogtle in georgia is going ahead, full steam. the first of the new reactors there is expected to be up and running by 2016. at the same time, the new reactors continue to face opposition and lawsuits over safety concerns as well as federal loan guarantees that are helping to fund the project. we join the debate now, with stephen smith, executive director of the southern alliance for clean energy, one of several groups filing a suit. and tony petrangelo, chief nuclear officer for the nuclear energy institute, a trade group that represents the industry. stephen smith, i'll start with you. let's start with the safety issue. you argue this is not the time to press forward with new nuclear power facilities. why not? >> well, let's remember.

less than a year ago in japan we witnessed catastrophic failure of the nuclear power industry. we saw multiple nuclear reactors out of control for an extended period of time literally blowing up before our eyes and spreading uncontrolled radiation into the countryside. the rubble there hasn't even cooled yet and now the united states nuclear regulatory comssion has granted a license for a reactor type that's never operated in the united states. we think we need to take a conservative, responsible, safety approach and go slow here and make sure we incorporate the lessons learned from the fucked disaster in japan to any new reactor designs before they go forward. >> now we mentioned that the n.r.c. approved this 4-1. the one descent was from the chairman and he said i could not support issuing this license as if fukushima has not happened. he thinks we have not learned

the lesson. what's the argument in favor of this. >> the reason the commission granted the license was that as a licensee now southern company and georgia power will license any of the fukushima requirements. they will be obligated to implement all the fukushima requirements that the commission as system systematically processed right now. >> brown: what lessons have you learned about fukushima that make you sanguine? >> one that an extended loss of a.c. power electricity can lead to core damage. one of the enhanced features of the plant being built by southern company at the vogel site is that it doesn't need electricity to shut down safely in the event of a loss of off site power or loss of a.c. power at the site. there are passive features that are he lied on to safely shut down the plant for well over 72 hours when you can get hope the the site for key safety functions. >> brown: well, stephen smith,

these are new di signs, right? for the reactors at the vogel plant? a westinghouse a.p.-1000 that it is said, at least, supposedly incorporates some of the lessons from fukushima. what do you think? >> well, yes, they're new. as a matter of fact, they're very new. they've never operated in this country before so we're still learning about how they're going to operate. one of the key things... i would disagree with my friend from the industry that the reason the chairman dissented was because the industry and the n.r.c. did not force as a part of the actual granting of the license that all the lessons learned would be incorporated. it is unclear exactly when and how those lessons learned will be incorporated and so we think that those lessons must be incorporated as a condition of granting the license, not some hopeful future date that they will be incorporated and that's one of the reasons why we're challenging the issuance of the license. but, yes, these are newer reactors.

but unfortunately i don't have as good a crystal ball as i think some people in the industry think they have to be able to predict exactly what's going to happen. what we do know is that if you would talk to japanese nuclear people or any of the folks in the industry before fukushima, they would have assured you that what happened at fukushima could not have happened and it did, catastrophically. so we need to be sure that we understand why that happens and that we go the extra distance necessary to assure this doesn't happen. i would think that the industry would actually want to be joining with us to make sure that those safety features are hard-wired in to the license before it's granted to give that extra level of assurance before we go forward. and that's what we're looking for in our legal challenge. >> brown: all right, well he asked the question there. you think you'd like to join him in these efforts. do you see this as a model for a kind of... there's been talk about a renaissance of nuclear power in the u.s. >> the a.p. one first of all... to answer the gentleman's

question. the a.p.-1000 is the most transparent design that's ever been licensed in the united states. many of the new requirements that the commission is currently contemplating have already been achieved at the new design in terms of using the latest data on external threats, whether it be flooding, hurricanes, seismic events, et cetera. i talked about the advantages it has with respect of loss of a.c. power and how it would cool itself down. so there's really no reason to stop the construction. in fact, four other commissioners and the n.r.c. staff and their general council all recommended proceeding with the license and the chairman was the only discenter in that vote. >> brown: and my further question about this design. does this look as though it's the beginning of something... a new era? something much bigger than just this vogel plant in georgia? >> yes, it's a significant milestone. one reason is that it demonstrated that the new process, the combined licenses, the construction permit and an operating license in the making

230r years and process space has now been demonstrated by a licensee that they could get through that process efficiently and effectively. the same thing will happen in south carolina in the next couple of weeks when they get granted their combined license. what's more important, we think, is that we standardize as a country around design families, the a.p.-1000 is one. we've demonstrated, i think, very effectively that we can operate these plants very safely and reliably. as an industry we've had a capacity factor on average over 90%, around 90% for the last decade. what we really need do now is demonstrate that we can license and construct these plants equally reliably and that's the next milestone, really, is to stay on budget and on schedule for this project. >> brown: speaking of on budget, i want to talk about the cost issue. i'll start with you, stephen smith, because there's a history, of course, of huge cost overruns. i mentioned in the setup that the government supports this project to the tune of $8

billion in conditional loan guarantees. is that part of your... explain the concerns that you have over the government involvement in that. >> well, if this was a mature industry as they claim it is then they really shouldn't be going to the government for handouts and support and we think that because of the inherent economic risk these price tags on these reactors have absolutely skyrocketing. from what they were originally proposed to do. georgia power and georgia is actually having to take money from rate payers now before the reactor is built because no one wants to invest in these things. they have to get the loan guarantees and it's just extremely costly and economically risky. much of the much touted nuclear renaissance has largely evaporated because demand is down, natural gas prices are low, energy efficiency is showing much stronger potential. renewable prices are dropping. so we're seeing we don't really need to go in the direction of these high-risk energy choices

and the federal government really doesn't need to be subsidizing it if the market doesn't want to support these. >> brown: well, let me ask mr. petrangelo, could this happen without the government stepping in and helping with these loan guarantees? >> it could. in fact, if southern doesn't close on the loan guarantee, the project will still go forward. >> brown: so why is the u.s.... >> the south carolina is proceeding without a loan guarantee. they here in regulated territory which is combined with the loan guarantee, the construction work in process that mr. smith referred to and the production tax credits that are part of the energy policy act, it will reduce the cost of the project to consumers by a billion dollars. it's good public policy for the rate payers to save a billion dollars through these incentives so it's a great demonstration of the partnership between private industry and government. >> brown: du does it not also put the taxpayers at some risk to be left holding the bag? >> there is some risk and georgia power or southern company pays a premium for their

that loan guarantee and the government will actually make money on this project. southern has a lot of skin in the game as well as their partners. this is a $14 billion project. there are about $4 billion in into that project. so there's a lot of skin in the game from the queults building these plants and their partners. so i think combined with the oversight of construction that's in place. the learnings that we'll great the chinese when they build the first a.p.-1000s, these learnings will proceed smoothly. >> brown: we are out of time but we'll come back. tony petrangelo, stephen smith, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> ifill: next, the economic and political struggles in tunisia one year after the revolution that sparked the arab spring. our story is part of a collaboration with the pulitzer center on crisis reporting. the reporter is jessie deeter an independent producer and

director who's worked in africa and the middle east for more than a decade. >> reporter: for these demonstrators in front of the building that now houses an elected parliament, it was jobs and economics that brought them into the streets. unemployment was 13% when the revolution began and has soared to 19% a year later. >> ( translated ): here i am still selling these rags, i mean, i haven't gained from it any work, nor a bite of food. >> ( translated ): unemployment is something unbelievable right now, in tunisia. for the youth right now, they want to cause trouble in this country. they're not happy that a year has passed with no results. >> reporter: tunisia's revolution coincided with the debt crisis in europe and a generally sluggish world economy. additionally, according to tunisia live news founder zied mhirisi, tunisia's tourism is in a deep recession.

>> for the second year now, we're having a serious decrease in the number of tourists coming to tunisia. the number dropped from seven million people a year to three million people a year. tourism is really paying a high price during this revolution. the government has a lot on its plate, not only a struggling economy but all the rest of the problems involved in establishing a fledgling democracy. sana ouechtati is a law professor and member of an opposition party. >> ( translated ): i believe that even if its difficult to expect results that are immediate and sustainable, you must present to the people, who have been waiting for one year something concrete and tangible, right away. >> reporter: the parliament is dominated by ennahda, tunisia's mainstream islamic party.

it swept october elections with 41% of the vote. human rights activist intissar kherigi is an ennahada party member who returned to tunisia after 20 years in exile in london. she counsels patience with a government that has been in power less than two months. >> i think what's important is that you have people in government who are serious about reform, and they're there to make change. they're not there to steal, they're there to build, just as if you look at history, the american democratic system, the american revolution took a while to transform into a stable democratic system. >> reporter: members of the new constituent assembly are meeting here in the parliament building to help define the rules that are going to change and shape a new tunisia. but assembly members are getting hung up on logistical issues like which language should be allowed in session. a handful of members are tunisians who have returned from living abroad and don't speak the standard arabic many consider correct for

parliamentary meetings. >> ( translated ): fight in our original language, there isn't a difference. we are all serving the tunisian people. i swear on allah's name, please let me continue! >> reporter: jawhara ettis is a member of the constituent assembly who is growing used to working late nights in the parliament. >> what is agreed upon by the people is that we have to use the arabic language because it is the official language of tunisia. we did not reach, let's say, a consensus. this will delay until tomorrow. >> reporter: citing the turkish model, ennahda spokesmen have clearly stated the party's intention of establishing a sustainable democracy protective of minority rights, but conservative islamic groups strike fear in the hearts of more secular tunisians. hayet bouguerra is a civil engineer and blogger. >> ( translated ): these young people, tunisians, real

tunisians, couples that stroll along the beach. and even the veiled ones, even the women in hijabs, they're in couples too and it isn't a problem. people like bougeurra worry that ennahda is not standing up strongly enough to more hardline religious factions. >> ( translated ): they're letting the salafis do whatever they want, so that they look moderate. they're doing this so that the world accepts ennahdha. so accept us, were democratic. we're not like them. >> reporter: but ennahda party leaders have said that the new assembly will not introduce sharia law or other islamic concepts to the new constitution. intissar kherigi, daughter of ennahda party leader rachid ghannouchi, defends her party's stance toward women. she says the fact that ennahda has 42 female representatives in the parliament speaks of its intention to help women succeed in the public, as well as the

private, domain. >> i think you can take a look at the ennahda women in the assembly and see the kind of work they do. many of them are professors, many of them are lawyers, many of them are doctors, they are entirely representative of the ennahda mainstream. all of my sisters, my three sisters, are doing phds. there's been always a spirit of education in our household. because without education, you can't build a democratic society. >> reporter: jawhara ettis is an english teacher and ennahda party member who had to quit her teaching job when she was elected as a member of the assembly last fall. she says that women are valuable contributors to assembly sessions. >> all of them are strong and all of them are intelligent and all of them are enthusiastic about this experience and all of them they want to be voiced by themselves, and not to be voiced through the male voice. >> reporter: tunisians are deep

in the process of discovering what it means to govern themselves. they have much to celebrate, as they have undergone a transition that is by and large peaceful, if also somewhat messy and painful. several people we talked to, even with their worries, insist their country will be better off than the repression that came before. souhail benchitima recently returned from russia, where he studied engineering, to start a plastics company in tunisia. >> i came back to participate in the revolution, to build my country. because i think, like, everyone here, every tunisian citizen is responsible to improve the economy. >> what happened with the tunisian revolution is that it gave people the belief that, actually, these governments are not as omnipotent as we thought they are. tunisia, given its position, given its resources, and given its people, i think has a real shot at building a real democratic society. >> i feel that in three or four

years, which is a really short amount of time, we're going to see a totally different tunisia, we're going to see a new generation in power. we're going to see that tunisia is going to be more open to the rest of the world. so, although i can feel that there are a lot of challenges ahead, i have no doubt that the future is much better than the past. but tunisians are still waiting for answers to their immediate and urgent economic problems , for parliament to create a real constitution that guarantees civil rights for all and the political struggles are bound to continue through the next elections, a year from now. >> ifill: find jessie deeter's impressions of post-revolution tunisia in her blogs on the pulitzer center's crisis reporting web page. you can find a link to their site, on ours.

>> brown: finally tonight: a drug shortage problem and its impact on a critical treatment for childhood leukemia. ray suarez has our update. >> suarez: there have been more than 250 drugs declared in short supply in the past year. the latest worries centered around a pivotal one called methotrexate. used to treat several kinds of cancers, methotrexate is considered essential in battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia among adults and especially among children. a.l.l. is the most common form of cancer in children affecting about 3,500 kids in the u.s. each year. late last year, one of four u.s. manufacturers of the drug was forced to shut down a plant, triggering alarms that hospitals could run out of the drug within days. this afternoon, f.d.a. officials told the newshour and other news organizations they have a plan that will avert the shortage.

but there are still questions being asked about the problem. doctor peter adamson of the children's hospital of philadelphia has been one of the leading voices in all this. he chairs a nationwide children's oncology group. dr. adamson, why did it even get to this point? help us understand why if one manufacturer is forced to close a plant the remaining ones simply don't make more medicine? >> well, i think there are a number of complex factors. but quite simply, we've known for the last several years that a number of drugs have been on f.d.a.'s shortageist. and the reasons are that these are all generic, these are all injectable drugs. and the capacity of the generic industry to make these drugs is very limited. and so the supply is so tenuous, if we lose one plant, the house of cards collapses. >> suarez: the f.d.a. for its part said this afternoon:

>> suarez: what is a sufficient amount of supply? if they release this stockpiled drug on to the marketplace, what's the safety zone? three weeks? four week-supply? >> well, probably at least a month's supply. fortunately, childhood cancer isn't common. but we have over 200 centers that treat children with cancer in all parts of the country and it's hard to predict when a child will be diagnosed, when they'll come in. but the drug has to be available early in diagnosis and throughout those first three months of treatment.

so we can easily manage several days without the drug. several weeks becomes increasingly problematic. if it were ever to exend to several months it would impact our ability to cure a number of these children. >> suarez: as you mentioned this is now produced as a generic. the drug is more than 50 years old. how come supply problems have not been addressed in the past? >> well, this be this has been a topic in congress, amongst many subspecialties and i think solutions are going to begin to emerge. part of it has to do with the level of reimbursement for these drugs. in general, the reimbursements are low. the generic industry hasn't uniformly been able to invest in its manufacturing plants. so some of the plants were superb in the 1970s and 1980s but technology has advanced and what we demand of our drugs today is greater than

what we demanded many years ago. and when these plants simply haven't had the investment they need, then issues around safety, around purity of the drugs come into question and plants close down. >> suarez: there's a bill now circulating on capitol hill that would call upon the drug manufacturers to have an early warning system so people would be well aware if problems develop in the supply chain. do you think this is part of an answer? >> i would say that's the first step. clearly an advance notice gives the f.d.a. time to look for foreign suppliers, to try to help suppliers correct problems that may exist. right now they only hear from in the large measure when pediatric oncologists and child had cancer centers call up the agency and say "we can't get drug." it's the first step, but that's clearly not going to be the long-term solution by itself. >> suarez: as we mentioned earlier, there have been shortages over the past year of more than 200 drugs. how come that wasn't a

sufficient alarm for the f.d.a., for the medical community and the manufacturers to get together on some durable, long-term solutions? >> i think that's a really important question. it has been discussed. it has been discussed with members of congress as well as the f.d.a. i think in the pediatric oncologist community we've known that we've been skating on thin ice for a long time. and what we've also known, it was not a matter of if this was going to happen, it was really a matter of when it was going to happen. and it is so unfortunate that we have to put our children at risk for this kind of event in order to get the attention that this really deserves. with all that said, i think many people are working very hard to come up with solutions to a complex problem. >> suarez: will the developments over the last 24 hours be enough?

are you reassured? are you satisfied that no child, for instance, suffering from leukemia will have to go without methotrexate? >> well, ray, i'm encouraged. but the children's oncology group is a research network that cares for children across the country. and until we know that every center that cares for children with leukemia has drug available, that they can give that day, we're not going to maintain our concern, maintain our pressure. yes, we're reassured and encouraged but no we don't think we're out of the woods by any means yet. >> suarez: very quickly, before we go, doctor, is missing a dose or two doses or a few day's worth a serious setback in the treatment of this disease? >> i think over the course of a day or one to two weeks is not going to be a serious setback. it's when it extends longer than

that that we're putting our children really at an unacceptable risk. >> suarez: dr. peter adamson joined us from the children's hospital in philadelphia. good to talk to you, sir. >> thanks for covering this, ray. >> ifill: again, the major developments of the day: a fire in an overcrowded honduran prison killed hundreds of inmates, many of them burned or suffocated. congressional negotiators worked out the final details of a deal to extend the payroll tax cut and long-term unemployment benefits, for the rest of the year. and iran announced new steps toward enriching uranium and using its own nuclear fuel in the face of mounting sanctions over its nuclear program. there's more on the republican presidential race online. hari sreenivasan has a preview. >> sreenivasan: on the rundown, judy filed a blog post about the latest twists and turns. and patchwork nation examines how mitt romney has done so far with voters in wealthy suburban areas. plus, on art beat, we talk to the creator of the blog, "the

art of google books," which showcases the accidental artwork created in the internet company's book scanning project. all that and more is on our web site: newshour.pbs.org. gwen? >> ifill: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. on thursday, we'll have a newsmaker interview with house minority leader nancy pelosi. i'm gwen ifill. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

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