against the anti-contraception candidate. he's barely going to make it through competing against two guys who seem to come from monty python. >> always a pleasure. that's the "the ed show." "the rachel maddow show" starts now. i know you have a super exclusive interview coming up. >> we do. this is a scoop we have been looking forward to breaking for a long time. a special report. thank a lot. >> i'm glued. thank yous for joining us this hour for "the rachel maddow show" special report. i have taken three days off in the last three months. i got the stomach flu on super bowl sunday. i spent last wednesday at a thing at the state department. there was one other day i have taken off. >> thank you for sticking around at home. rachel is on assignment. >> question mark. right. tonight, i finally get to tell you where i was on that assignment.

this is an exclusive report, which means we get to put up the thing that says exclusive. do we have that? thank you. this is an exclusive report. we are breaking news that nobody has and it's good news. it starts here. president eisenhower. every liberal's favorite moment is the farewell address where he coins the phase military complex and explains defense needs and the defense industry threaten to take over what we want and need. my favorite speech has not been that last one, but one of his first big ones. the adams for peace speech that he gave in his first year in office. he talked about the united states having an arsenal of weapons that could destroy the world. then as now, we were the only country to have usen an atomic weapon.

it was clear by that point in 1953 that it wasn't just us. the soviet union had a number of successful tests. he talked about the hopeless finality of a belief that two atomic colosi is doomed to eye each other indefinitely across a trembling world. he talked about the helpless acceptance of the proeblt of civilian detroyed. >> condemnation of man kind to begin all over again. the age old struggle from savagery toward decency and right and justice. >> it's not often that presidents talk this deep. talk about the united states not wanting if drive the huge race back into the stone ages or the desire of our country to gnat be recorded as one of the great destroyers.

that was what he said out loud in it was amazing and it was awful. it was awful because what he announced in that speech was a plan to make nukes, not just the thing to end the world but a positive thing too. we went from being a country that kept nuclear so information so secret that as vice preponderate harry truman didn't know we had the bomb until f.d.r. died. he had to become president before anybody told him we had the bomb. we wanted to be the only one in the world with nuclear weapons but nuclear power under eisenhower we went fwr that possessive keep the genie in the bottle in the company to a country that exported nuclear technology all over the woorld. that's what atoms for peace was about.

it was all supposed to be for peaceful purposes for energy. that peaceful scientific nuclear technology that we exported all around the globe is what eventually is real in india and pakistan turned into full flejed nuclear weapon's programs. what started out as us having neek here weapons and us in the soviet union and because us the brits and the chinese. this right now is who in the world has nuclear weapons? let's add an outline around iran because even though they say they neither have them nor want them, our international concerns is they are not working on having them but they may be close to that. if this is the world of nuclear weapons, take a look at this.

there are whole parts of the world with no nuclear weapons on them. why is that? why are there no nuclear weapons in all of africa? in all of south america? it's on purpose. south africa made nuclear weapons, a bunch of them but they gave them up be cuban missile crisis was about missiles being moved. they decided to declare themselves nuclear weapons free zones. they wouldn't have them. they would not let other countries put them there. in 1967 the central america and south america and the caribbean. in 1985, it was the whole south pacific. in 19945, it was southwest asia. all together when you look at all of those places, that's two-thirds the of all countries

in the world including the entire southern hemisphere. we shipped it all over the place. we set up nuclear research reactors all over the place. i love you, but man, what a mess. we sent highly enriched uranium and the technology to use it in reactors, we went that all over the globe. on a globe where the nuclear explosion is the highest aspiration of the lowest life forms. highly enriched uranium could make a dirty bomb.

it's a big problem that there's loose nuclear material all over the globe. there aren't nuclear weapons all over the globe. the means to make them are there and stealable in all sorts of places you dot not want them to be the to build a bomb, terrorists will not go where there's the most material. they will go where the material is most vulnerable. that makes it only as strong as the weakest link in the chain. it is this person's job, that person standing there with me in the ridiculous suit. this person's job to go get nuclear material all over the earth and lock it down. you pay that person's salary. would you like to meet her? you're about to. we've taken on that responsibility because we have

an interest in will not being nuclear terrorism in the world. part of us taking on this responsible here is because a lot of the loose nuclear material that's out there came from us. it came from the united states. today's big news, remember that ike gave the speech in 1953, three years after that in 1956, the nation of mexico starting getting their atoms for peace. they formed a nuclear commission. that is where i went on assignment last month. it's where mexico keeps its highly enriched uranium. mexico has taken good care of it. it's terrorists holy grail. it's the black market smuggling prize.

if someone did steal it in mexico, it's not like there's any viable smuggling routes between mexico and the united states, are there? as of today, i can report that in the entire nation of mexico there's no longer any highly enriched uranium because our government just removed. it's it's like a spy movie out we did it. >> we're in mexico. we think we're in rush hour traffic. it might be an hour and quarter. it might be day. >> hopefully not a day. somewhere around an hour and a half. >> plenty of time for me to plum the depth of what we're doing here with you. is your -- have you still the director of former soviet union? >> i am be. >> why are we in mexico? >> it has to do with the way our office is organized. i'm the coordinator for all of our removal activities.

my office is still in charge. >> you are in charge? >> that is correct. >> can you tell people what do you do? like when you leave to do this where does your family think you're going? >> it's not classified where i'm going and just what the details are of the operation. >> what should people understand about the difference between what we think of as nuclear power reactors and research reactors? >> the biggest difference is the material itself. the material is only like 3 to 4%. it's not material a terrorist can use. >> highly enriched uranium is consideringed 20%. >> the research reactors that we're looking at have much higher material. the material is 70% enriched.

some have higher enrichments than that. >> research reactors tend to be smaller in scale but have scarier stuff? >> exactly. the material is smaller so it's easier to transport. a field rod is something you can pick up and walk off on your own. you would not pick it up and walk off with it unless you're crazy because you'll die. >> something that comes out of a nuclear reactor, something that is spent fuel. if that's so radio active that grabbing hold of it kills you, it sort of self-protects. that makes it less stealable. >> much higher and much more attractive target. >> why would mexico be happy to get rid of their highly enrich uranium. obviously, it's a risk that it

falls into the wrong hands. presumably they had a reactor producing highly enriched uranium for a reason. >> there's been a push for them to convert and spent fuel is a liability. there's nothing they can use it for. it's just material that's sitting in a pond with no disposition pathway. by getting rid of the material it reduces the overall threat level. >> the part of it that seems clear to me is you don't want to want have this very expensive, useless thing on your hands. that's a reason that you should be willing to convert your reactor. >> we're also working through to provide them traditional upgrades.

>> the united states is doing that? >> united states is doing that. >> we're paying for it? >> we're paying for it. >> the mexican nuclear program, obviously mexico not a nuclear state but having power in mexico started in the '50s when the united states under eisenhower was actively promoting the spread of nuclear know how and technology for civilian uses. it was right in the sweet spot. is this the other side of that? we're sort of let that genie out of bottle. places like pakistan took advantage of that afterwe spread the knowledge around the world. now we're worried about nuclear terrorism so we're trying to recontain it. >> that's exactly wa we're trying to do. we trying to find the material

that we gave out and gave it back. >> 50 years later? >> 50 years later. >> do you curse eisenhower's name? >> i would never do that. i love my job. >> i've been sort of an ike fan. this infuriates me. >> in hindsight it was not our best decision. >> it was a beautiful idea. let's use that terrible destructive power and it will the be just as positive if we use it for something other than weapons. >> perhaps overly trusting. >> one of the things the united states has had difficulty with and every country had to considering the corruptibility of people working at every level of the infrastructure. it's great if you have great gates and guys with guns standing up but if the guy is being bribed, the overall level of corruption and susceptibility

of people at every level, that's affected by the general sense of lawlessness. >> we do take that into consideration. we're installing security upgrades. it include a two-person rule. one single person will never have the key and pass code to get it. it always requires two. >> is that true in the u.s.? >> yes. >> we try to instill rules from preventing one single person from getting to the material. no security system is perfect. it's important to get rid of the material in the long run and not just protect it in place. >> protecting it in place.

in this case means protecting it in mexico, which is not exactly war torn somalia but they do have their share of hurly burly like the drug cartel tied to the industry of smuggling into the united states of america. i asked the united states ambassador to mexico if that is part of the reason to breathe easier about mexico cleaning out of its nuclear material. >> all americans think about the situation. they worry about organized crime. people are experts on the

subjects don't seem toll be worried that the cartel is trying to get their hands on this what do you think the risks are and the benefits to the united states being wrong? >> it wasn't a worry that the stuff in mexico, h.e.u. would fall into that hands. take this dangerous stuff and try to lower the levels all over the world. the mexicans are participating in that process. >> is there a connection in your mind or in the united states calculations of the interest here between this nuclear material and its security and all of the other things that are able to be smuggled over the u.s.-mexico border whether it's illegal migration or drugs. is there any connection between those issues? is that any part of the worry? >> the commitment in moving ahead was because of a global problem. we're working closely with the mexicans on ways to improve security and help them build stronger law enforcements and law enforcement to build the 21st century border that's more secure and allows more people in commerce to go across it at the same time. this program was not tied into that. this program was part of this global effort to take and get commitments to reduce the levels of h.e.u. around the world. >> estimates vary depending on who you're asking.

it takes maybe 25 kilograms to make a nuclear weapon. they're not that hard to make. since the president's nuclear security summit in 2010 where 47 countries agreed that we would lock up all vulnerable nuclear material around the world, since then more than a thousands kilograms have been locked down. that's enough for hundreds of bombs. none of that material is in mexico anymore. we have more ahead. today's shipment means when this is completed there will be no more highly enriched uranium in mexico at all. the spent material will be departing one week later. then mexico will be completely cleaned out. >> by the time this is on tv. >> by the time this is on tv, everything will be out of mexico.

the magic of this bed is that you're sleeping on something that conforms to your individual shape. wow! that feels really good. it's hugging my body. it works in a minute. i can get more support. if you change your mind once you get home you can adjust it. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. at our semi-annual sleep sale, save $400 to $700 on our most popular bed sets. sale ends soon. only at the sleep number stores. where queen mattresses start at just $699.

our exclusive report on weapons nuclear material south of the u.s. border. that news breaking here tonight. it continues next with the amazing topiary. you think i'm kidding.

word of the day, tlatelolco. you pronounce every letter. that's the treaty that says no nuclear weapons anywhere south of the united states in all of latin america and the caribbean. >> back in the '60s after the cuban missile crisis when the

latin american countries decided they will become a nuclear weapons free zone, a huge part of the earth. they had options. they didn't have to do that. mexico is the country that led it. mexico decided the champion that and even get sop initial resistance but that's why there's this huge swath of the earth that doesn't have nuclear weapons at all. nicely, the nuke her state vs agreed not to bomb. >> that was nice. >> that was the nice part of the treaty. >> this this being completed every country below the united states will have only very small amount offense highly enriched uranium. brazil only has a few grams. argentina has a few. once mexico is cleaned out, you might have half kilogram.

>> your tax dollars at work. we'll be right back.

we're just pulling into mexico's national nuclear research institute. they are converting this reactor from highly enriched uranium. all of that stuff is leaving on this trip today.

what they're doing today and next week. there's a lot of men with guns. there's also a lot of topiary. >> indeed there is. >> that appears to be a duck. >> it's a duck or a small bird. >> i would say a water fowl. >> they take their topiary very seriously. >> they do. it's kind of weird. among the jobs of the people that work there are keeping safe from terrorists, mexicos entire stock of highly enriched uranium and making sure the hedges are

trimmed into ducks and snakes. that's a turtle. you got the keep the topiary tiptop. that's some sort bird. on this operation to get rid of all of mexico's weapons, the movement of all the uranium is just as complex. this has been run on highly enriched uranium. that fuel goes into the reactor, in the reactor it becomes hugel radioactive and more dangerous. by getting so dangerous it becomes less portable. it will kill you if you are around it. the agreement reached at president obama's nuclear summit in 2010 was that mexico would change this reactor. it will now use just lowenrich

ed uranium. there's three things that are in motion. the u.s. brought mexico low enriched uranium to use as the fuel in their reactor. we brought that into the country. the u.s. took away on this enormous plane the fresh highly enriched uranium that mexico had. the u.s. took away mexico's highly enriched uranium that has been through already. this is the super dangerous to handle stuff. that wasn't by ship. that cannot travel by plane. watch this. >> why is the fresh fuel, which is the less hot, not e radiated fuel, why is that leaving by plane and the spent fuel, the more hot stuff leaving by ship? >> for two reasons. the fresh material because it's

the more attractive target, we wouldlike to get out of the country as quickly as possible, hence the plane. >> it's more attractive because it's the thing you could easily weaponize. >> you could pick it up your honor own and it's ease your to turn into a nuclear weapon. the spent fuel, there's not a certified package that allows it by plane. >> we do not have a package that's gone through the necessary testing to give everybody enough confidence that you can put the material on plane and fp there was an incident that the package would not be breeched. >> if there's plane crash? i got ya. >> that would be an incident. >> it can't go -- >> it can't go by plane. >> there isn't anything strong enough to put it in. >> anywhere in the world or just not certified in the united states? >> yus the united states. we just finished the

certification for a cast to fly spent fuel to russia. we're getting ready to do our first shipment of that. >> it's certified for russia but not us? >> right. >> how did you certify it? >> it takes probably year and a half or two years. you're talking about taking this and putting it on an airplane. they needed to do a scenario to figure out the impacts if the plane crashed. we didn't want to rent plane and put the casts on it and crash it. that didn't make a lot of sense. they came up with a design where they built a rocket sled. they put a rocket on the back of the cast and sent it off by rocket until it crashed. they were able to look at the impacts of the crash and determine there was no breech and the cast -- >> they literally strapped a rocket. >> that's my understanding. i was not there and was not witness to it. >> it's fine.

nice. >> sounds like so. >> it's an art and a science. >> it is. >> what's in there? >> that's the contained -- >> you can remotely handle some of it. they are highly radioactive. you can manipulate. you can take them. it's all remotely. we produce the samples that can be tested at the facility like this one.

>> can i do that? >> sure. >> can i do that? >> sure. like this. >> oh, yeah. >> okay. >> now i know what i want to be in my next life. >> like space technology. >> yeah. i feel like i'm part robot. that's very cool. i can turn that like that. it's got full range of motion and a clamp like that. i would grab something in there, but i'm not going to. >> these doors should we have any accident, reactive material is released, instead of going out of the building, it's inside. >> this is part of containment? >> this is part of containment. this is the controlled room. this is the reactor. this reactor is a reactor with a pull with about eight meters of

water. >> is it just plain water? >> it's plain water. the water serves to cool the reactor. secondly, to stop radiation and be able to work along the reactor. >> the water is a barrier. >> exactly. it's like a shielding of all that volume of water. >> the reactor is at the bottom? >> it's right at the bottom of it. you can see that done up and inside. you can see the other side of the reactor. you can see the holes. when a reactor is working. the only thing that you see is bluish light. that is produced when radiation goes through water. then you get this very intensive blue light. >> can you look at it or is it

dangerous? >> you can look at it. by the time it comes by here, it's all stopped. here you don't get any radiation. >> even in nuclear research reactors, you need a shot back. i don't care that it's a nuclear reactor. you still need one. >> once it's transported, it will be done immediately. shipped immediately. there's no risk of anybody getting hands on this thing. >> is all of fresh, it's all going to fit in those? >> it's all going to fit in the that. >> are these sealed? >> yes. >> can i see what the seal looks like? >> yes.

>> i was talking to the director general after i finished interviewing him, he said make sure you see the seals. >> you have the seal and d-12 seal, twice. >> i see. okay. >> when it gets back to the united states we take the seals off and mail those back. that ensures that nothing has opinion tampered with in the transportation route. >> 12 is an american facility? >> yeah. >> i think i thought the seals were going to be locked. like i thought they were going to be some big intense physical barrier. >> the seals themselves are intended to show that nobody has tampered with the package since they have been packaged. >> because this would have to come out. >> it's not necessarily to prevent access.

>> this one no seals. these are going to be the exact same puppies with us on the plane tomorrow? >> yes. these the same casts. >> puppies. >> puppies would be cuter. >> right. less radioactive. you know how you have a package for what you're going to send for postal service. this is from the nuclear research facility to oak ridge, tennessee. it has a return address. it wouldn't want to handle the postage, but it's there. >> what we had to do for this operation given the complexity we had to bring a specialized

forklift on this military c-17 plane. this forklift played a key role because we had to unload 40 assemblies of low enriched uranium and first unload that and the weapons on to the military aircraft. we could not have done that using just the equipment here in mexico. in order to make sure we did it efficiently, we had to bring our own forklift here. >> what now happens to the fresh highly enriched uranium which is on board with us right now. when we land, where does it go and how long does it take to get where it needs to be? >> when we land, we will transfer it to a truck and move it to the y-12 nuclear security complex. >> at what point do you breathe a sigh of relief? what is the thing that happens where you feel like now i can take a nap? >> the last bit of material, all the h.e.u. is delivered to idaho and y-12.

>> libya was giving up the last of its material and that was about five kilograms of spent highly enriched uranium which is what is being transport frd the mexico site as well. when the revolution happened in libya, did you breathe the biggest sigh of relief ever in the entire government? did you just feel like i can't believe there is no more nuclear material there anymore. i'm so happy and i could cry. >> many of us felt that will way. when we were watching the events unfold in libya. it was stunning to us what the risks might have been had we not been able to finish removing the material. i have had similar feelings about iraq. i worked in iraq in 2003 and

2004. one of the early things that the department of energy did at that point with the u.s. military was to secure radiological sources. imagine what i.e.d. in iraq might have been if the sources weren't secured. >> what kind of material was it? >> it was a lot of sources from everything from lightning rods to medical treatment. you put two or three of neez and you'd have a dirty bomb every time an i.e.d. went off. >> today is nineth anniversary of the u.s. invasion of iraq in 2003. the war started because president bush was they had weapons of mass destruction, which wasn't true. that does not mean there wasn't nuclear terl in iraq. lots of countries all over the globe have nuclear material. once we invaded under false

pretenses, while we were looking for the weapons that didn't exist there, the u.s. energy department did lockdown all of the loose nuclear material in iraq. then went on having war there for another eight years. thank god they did it. in the context of war that bush administration officials are calling quote, a mistake, the biggest error since vietnam, locking down loose material in iraq is something we are glad to have done. when candidates talk about getting rid of the department of energy, they're asking you to judge whether you think locking up loose nukes is useful thing because that's what the department of energy does. they have completely removed all weapons usable from the country of mexico. we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] lactaid milk is easy to digest.

it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk.

not financially. so we switched to the bargain detergent and i found myself using three times more than they say to and the clothes still weren't as clean as with tide. so we're back to tide. they're cuter in clean clothes. that's my tide. what's yours? we're not afraid to be naked in front of our nuclear reactor. can you decipher this? >> unfortunately, it's in spanish. if it were in english i'm sure i

would know what it says. >> this is very heartening. if you are a kid in science class at some point in your educational career in the united states and you're thinking when is this stuff ever going to be used in real life. even if i'm a scientist, we'll be doing everything on computers, we'll never use this chalkboards. guess what. in the middle of the nuclear research facility, chalkboard. the scientist who is bad has to clean the erasers. >> exactly. i do see a few symbols i recognize from math class. >> i recognize a few symbols from sew rorties. we've got exclusive footage

not financially. so we switched to the bargain detergent and i found myself using three times more than they say to

and the clothes still weren't as clean as with tide. so we're back to tide. they're cuter in clean clothes. that's my tide. what's yours?

we've got exclusive footage here of the arrival in the united states of the last highly enriched uranium in mexico. as you can see, it's arriving at night. the flight that you saw earlier, that took the uranium fuel rods that had not been in mexico's research reactor that were therefore safe to handle. but the really super radioactive stuff that can kill you, the stuff that had been in the reactor, we do not allow that on planes. that goes in multiton steel casts that are hoisted by a

giant crane. it got trucked over land to the coast, to the port of vera cruz, put on to a ship and sailed north to the u.s. it's now been safely downblended. if anybody is going to go after nuclear material to steal it, the people who want to steal it may try that when the material is in motion, while it is being moved. as of today, we can report the nation of mexico has been cleaned out of weapons using nuclear material. ear security commission. he's the man responsible for this function of the united states government, tom dagastino. great to have you. >> great to be back. >> first, i have explained a lot about this in the last little bit of the show. tell me what i got wrong. >> i think you got it exactly right.

these are complicated missions. it requires ten agencies between two countries, the iaea was involved. multiple agencies within both governments. you can imagine the coordination of pulling all of this together. it's not something where you say, we're going to do this next month, let's go make it happen. it takes years of planning. the summit from two years ago was the catalyst that really got us going. >> you were working on -- national nuclear security administration was working on clearing these weapons out of countries. but has the pace picked up since the president's started focusing on it? >> absolutely. put it in terms of numbers, give us a sense, we started in the mid-'90s on this work. we worked in 13 countries, cleared out highly enriched

uranium in 13 countries. took care of 2,500 kilograms of material. we've taken care of 1,000 kilograms and cleaned out material in seven countries. in the text two years, we'll do at 7,000 kilograms. it's like a fourfold increase in pace. that's what vision gets you. that's what leadership gets you. that's what determination and focus gets you. that's what we've got with these nuclear security summits, with the president's declaration on four years in locking down material. i think it's just wonderful -- we don't do it by ourselves. we do it with our international partners. >> so the nuclear security summit that you were just discussing was from april of 2010. president obama gave the prague speech in 2009. then a year later, the big 49 nation summit. the two-year follow-up is next week. even more countries will be involved there. will it be just checking on pacing to see if we're on track to lock up all vulnerable material or will it be expanded? >> it's about reviewing progress, absolutely, because we have to review progress. it's important to get a progress report. and it's about a recommitment.

we want to have a recommitment of all of our countries together bringing in a new more international organizations. the iaea will be actively involved in working on this because they are a key part of this. so it will be left to determine to the leaders of these countries to determine, do we want to add more commitments, if you will, on top of this? we have our work cut out for us. we have a big job to do in the next year and a half. we're not going to say it's over until it's over. even after that, we have to make sure the security upgrades stay in place. >> i asked about whether or not the disaster at fukushima has changed the way that countries around the world think about not just safety of nuclear power but nuclear security. you think about those spent fuel rods in those reactors in fiduciary fukushima there. and that's all i could think of. has that changed either the

urgency or who cares about it or the list of priorities in this field? >> i think it goes to show that this is something that we need to manage. we need to do it in a deliberate way. and we need to do it together. and, therefore -- i mean, i like attention on this topic. i think the right kind of attention on nuclear security is absolutely the thing that we want. this is what we get with these security summits. we get this kind of attention at the highest levels of government. and that's what brings government organizations within the united states government together. we know the president wants this. we're working together to go make it happen. >> tom dagastino, thank you for helping me and my team get close enough to cover this story. thanks for your time. >> absolutely. thanks so much. likewise. >> i like that we pay his salary. right after this show, the latest on the trayvon martin

story and john mccain says republicans have a women voters problem. who knew? we're right back after this. we have been reporting

we have been reporting breaking news that mexico has officially divested itself of all usable nuclear material spearing a way to the united states for disposal and downblending. there's more posted at maddowblog.com. tomorrow we will have full coverage of the illinois republican presidential primary. polls close in illinois at 8:00 p.m. eastern. we'll cover it all night.