and remarkably, one of those noncompliant plants is browns ferry itself. >> browns ferry today doesn't meet the regulations adopted because of the browns ferry fire, and that's just unacceptable. >> o'brien: why do things tend to languish at the nrc? >> i wouldn't say that things move slowly. i think we... >> o'brien: 30-plus years-- that's pretty slow, isn't it? >> well, i think in that 30 years we've made a lot of changes to the fire protection program. i think we still have some lingering issues that we want to get resolved. >> o'brien: that must be a little bit frustrating though to still be discussing this so many years later. >> i think it... it's something we need to get behind us and for the very simple reason that new issues will come up. of course, fukushima is probably the most important one we're dealing with now. we know that the likelihood of something like a fukushima accident happening here is very, very low. but we know it's not impossible. so we want to make sure we act quickly enough because i think the biggest failure would be for us to have this kind of a situation

one example, while researching this book, on the 150th anniversary of brown's raid, i went with park service historian in harper's ferry dennis frai and other sort of demented pilgrims and we marched the exact route that brown and his men did on march 16th, 1859. it was a cold rain, which apparently it was on that night, behind a horse-drawn wagon and we went the five miles into harper's ferry to the engine house. it was what re-enactors call a period rush. that sort of time travel high you get from, you know, leaving your own time zone. and we weren't wearing uniforms or carrying weapons or any of that. we had the horse. the horse was good. but, you know, that's the kind of thing you can do in the hallowed ground that, you know, most of american history sadly is -- you're going to hear traffic roaring in the distance. you're going to -- whatever. you're going to have all kinds of modern intrusions that are going to make it very difficult to recapture that history. so i think, yeah, actually i've got two books out of hallowed ground. it's a special place. >> you know, you remind me of something that's important to reme

here in waterford, we're not far from harper's ferry, the subject of john brown's raid. some of us are very curious on to understand how this historical landscape has influenced so much of your writing, whether it's been confederates in the attic or many of the articles you've written. and as we're so dedicated to this historic swath from g gettysburg to monticello, would like to open it to about your insight and thoughts about this landscape and how it inspires us. >> i thought you were going to ask something different, which is why i didn't write this book while i lived in waterford. as the crow flies, are we 15 miles from harper's ferry? i had to move to massachusetts before i got -- great book in my backyard, in my former backyard. yeah, i mean, well speaking to this subject at least, first of all, i wrote confederates in the attic because of what happened 15 yards from here when reenactors sum belled into my front yard in waterford because they were reenacting for a movie here because it's such a great historic landscape. but with this book i think part of what -- d

more than two companies of marines at harper's ferry on act 16th, 1859, when they stormed the fire engine house and captured five rebels commanded by john brown. harper's ferry, 1859. now, maybe commanding two companies of marines is all you need. the marines contend that way anyway. but here is lee confronting 105,000 yankees who are in the suburbs of richmond. and what did he do? he set his men to work digging trenches, field fortifications. and so this man who had been called granny lee, the overcautious, is now known as the king of spades because all he wants to do is have these trained killers, these warriors, dig ditches with shovels with picks and things and that's not much fun. but that's what soldiers do! and lee points that out. what he wants to do and what he did was to hold richmond with 25,000 troops, fall upon mcclellan's flank which he discovered was exposed by way of stewart's dramatic ride around mcclellan, the raid in june 12-15, 12th through the 15th of 1862. and he's going to fall upon mcclellan's flank with 45,000 troops. and then he's going to bring jackson in from the valley with 20,000 more to attack mcclellan's rear.

brown, becomes a martyr through the cause. here's a final strange twist in their connection. one of the odd things about the harper's ferry story is it's almost a casting call for the confederacy. rob e. lee and jeb storm lead the troops in a counterattack against john brown, stonewall jackson turns up there. it's almost a prequel to "gods and generals" which was a prequel to "gettysburg." but jefferson davis is leading the charge in congress. you see all of these figures 18 months before the civil war. but in the final twist is at john brown's hanging, one of the guards is john wilkes booth, who later writes about being quite inspired by brown or talks to his sister about it. she writes about it. she calls him the great man of the century. here's a man who took an act that changed the course of american history, and that's ultimately what john wilkes booth then does in assassinating lincoln. >> chill bumps. i got 'em. i hope you all do, too. >> yeah. . >> when you read this book, you're going to get more, because i'm going to tell you something that you do so remarkably well, and that is these names, they're names on his

with an expression that the -- that she believed that the violence of harper's ferry was just the beginning and that john brown was actually -- what he was doing was urging all slaves to rise up against their white families, as she considered them. she also -- i thought this was really interesting. she also turned her suspicions towards outsiders. now, bradford, like many young women, were educated by a governorness and many of those governornesses that would teach in the home were from the north. bradford turned on the governorness and tried to get her fired, and told the parents that she believed that, quote, she has not even taught school before. and that she is not like we have ever had before, really painting her as an outsider and everybody should be suspicious of her. nonetheless, the governorness left right before the war commenced. what is encouraging the sentiment of these female -- these young females, whatsoever righting up their opinion about the north, about the union position. of course, letters from home and to the schools where a lot of these girls spent the war. they would -- parents often se

ferry service for that action as well. mit and a fun. >>> it would be a great way to see the day. >>> annual shows a majority of california voters support jerry brown'stiative the survey by the public policy instead of california 54% of likely voters are inclined to boast yes and to automatic spending cuts for k through 12 education it will take effect of the initiative fails in november phoenix police had to take action during arizonas immigration law. because the u.s. supreme court heard arguments on the arizona law as the cabin 70 pass local police to stop people suspected the border legally the justices appeared to be leaning in favor of the law and justice suggested that states should be a will to defend their borders the prosecution star witness in the criminal trial will be back on the stand today for more cross- examination the defense is trying to trick away at entry and credibility. prosecutors hope the former aide well convince the jury the jury that these campaign friend to highest headmistress edward faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted. still in business the u.s. postal service said its saved by the scent at least for now lawmake