Earthquakes, the changing climate with hurricanes, and how ready we are to face that in the 20th century. The 21st century. Company, is owned by a a company that has been on the nrcs watch list variety of different reasons. They own indian point outside of new york city in addition to several others. The nrc has a column four status. Particularly problematic plants that have had repeated safety concerns. Pilgrim has been on that column for quite sometime did citizens are concerned. Particularly on cape cod since they do not have an obvious way of egress in the way of disaster. That led us to think about this particularly in light of various closings of plants as well. Host nrc is the Nuclear Regulatory commission. Of all theap here Nuclear Power plants across the country. You can take a look, there is a power plant in almost every state. Some states have more than others. What is the commissions role . How close and i do they keep on these plants . Eye. they do keep a close they are hamstrung in terms of their ability to take action. At most of these plants, especially the large plants, they have one or two inspectors that are there fulltime onsite. Theyre doing work there. They are doing planned inspections, surprise inspections. That is all really good work. If you talk to people like the unions are concerned, scientists , they would like to see the nrc have more teeth. They would like to see more division between the nrc and industry. It is such a small world, the world of Nuclear Power, engineering, some people have argued there is not enough distinction between the practitioners on the private side and the regulators on the public side. In the the piece globe you caught our attention about diane, who glides up to a rusty gate, drives around for a while and the never stops. Guest she is an activist. Concerned citizens on cape cod who are concerned about the safety of the plant and in the event of a meltdown or the official response by the state is that they should shelter in place. There is no way to get them off the cape immediately. I met with her and her organization and took a road trip with her around plymouth. She said, look how easy it is to get on the plant. There we were. On the plant. Multiple areas. We were not within the innermost fence and this is important. Ventsis the intermost which contains the reactor but we got much further than we ought to have been able to. Host the spent fuel. At you can mountain for instance. Tell us about that. At yuca mountain. Made withn deals were the townsend made these plants the idea was that the central held there. Ever be there would be a National Storage facility, reagan tried to push this through. That we would have a way to take these central rods and contain them in someplace that would be safe for millennia at would not require towns to shoulder the burden. That has not happened. Yuca really petered out during the obama administration. Senateas a lot of opposition to that as well as the opposition of people who live in nevada. President trump assigned as part of his budget, 120 million to yuca project and that has been controversial. Were to manifest, in the meantime we have towns like plymouth, the area around indian point north of new york oft have large quantities central rods in pools. The town say, this was never supposed to be a part of the deal. Host jack is calling from scottsdale, arizona. Before we bring jack in, we are taking your calls this morning premier separating the lines based on times is. If you live in 202 748 the eastern and central time zones, the 202 7488000 eastern and central time zones, 202 7488000. Good morning, jack. Caller thank you for taking my call today. Im glad this woman is talking about this because i dont think this country realizes this, we are discussing all these controversial issues about this realize when they dont , something would go wrong with all these Nuclear Plants. Wrong, we have one in arizona. They are a great thing. What we dont realizes, the electric grid would go down, this country would be done in less than a week or two. Especially in the coastal cities. My question would be, what are we doing, what is the protection from our whole nuclear and electric grid going down . Guest the short answer is we are not doing enough. What is happening in puerto rico , that is not an unreasonable scenario for anywhere else in the nation. We have an outmoded grid. It is still the same grid from the 20th century. Theave chosen not to fund updating of the grid and making sure it is resilient. It would be expensive for our country but it is one that is decades overdue. Host what is the impact of a plant closing on the surrounding economy . Guest significant. When i spoke to the town leaders in plymouth, it is a good example of what is happening around the country as we see this increase in plant closures, and a pilgrim are great neighbors. They contribute to millions of dollars from everything to the parade, the library, the middle school. Their chair of contributions. They tend to be good employers. Skilled jobs. We will see the effects of that but unemployment in towns that dont have other options. The loss of these highpaying jobs that have ripple effects on the local economy as well. Go to miller place, new york where anthony is on the line. Good morning. Caller good morning, mrs. Miles, i thank you for discussing this topic. It seems to be blacked out in the media. To even discuss this particular issue. I would like to direct my commentary to the moderator. Cam winners student were proponents of the safety of Nuclear Power. I would bake cspan2 have them back on and see how they feel about it now. It was only 11 months after that that they won the prize and they touted the safety and the redundancies of safeguards implemented in the technology but then we had meltdown reactors off the coast of california. The scientists that designed the plants, the ge three, had resigned their positions from General Electric because of the implementation of the mark one reactor which is the Standard Unit and all of our technology. It is so flawed. The people with the wisdom to have come up with the Technology New well early on as did einstein that it was flawed and there is no way of keeping it out of the environment in the long run. Turn noble is a primary example where they put a sarcophagus over it that will only last is ao chernobyl primary example where they put a sarcophagus over it that will only last 100 years. Island, we have brookhaven which has had a meltdown and it is leaking into the river. There is no way of stopping it. It is going to be the undoing or the pandoras box of all life on this planet. It is such a bad design and it is a Flawed Technology to boil water. I wish you would have more criticisms on cspan about this topic and discussions on it. I think it is a grand lie we have all been fed that this is a nuclear technology. It is going to be the end of everything of all life as we know it on this planet. Guest this reactor he is referring to is a controversial design. We see this in multiple large plants around the country. Engineers associated with it have called it into question and criticized it. One of the reasons is these failsafe mechanisms. ,e see in plants like pilgrim as several noreasters came through, even snowfall were enough to set off the switch yard, which work like an electric switch are, unplanned shutdowns of the plant. Rising storm surge are also a concern. Of changing weather patterns, environmental factors and whether plants can keep up in terms of their ability to cool the Nuclear Material is what is at issue. Lets go now to oklahoma where we have bob on the phone. Good morning, bob. Caller good morning. A very important issue. This needs to be aired out a lot more often. Here is a facility down located right along a beautiful river coming into the arkansas river. It did a lot of damage down here. A lot of damage. Permanent damage. , this plant, thend what is called started using liquid fertilizer on fields. It will make the grass grow quick and green but then it would be bad after that for years to come. There were a lot of problems around here. Cancer. , the nativeap americans for a Clean Environment was a group i got involved with in the late 80s. We did a lot of work around here. A lot of people did good work to expose the Nuclear Industry. Why dont you talk about that . The reconfiguration of nuclear fuel and the reprocessing and what is going on with how corrupt the whole industry, the whole Nuclear Industry is absolutely correct. It is poison. I think you should address this in an honest way because there is no way in the world the Nuclear Industry is a legitimate thing. Do you care to weigh in . Guest we should say there are plenty of examples of the use of Nuclear Power. I do not want to malign the entire industry. He is speaking from oklahoma. I spent several weeks there. There is an interesting case, we could not anticipate the changing landscape. Oklahoma went from being one of the least seismic states in the country to quite possibly the most in the lower 48. Were seeing the effect of those quakes on infrastructure there. Ofersing the ripple effects the oil industry. All of the Energy Industries are connected. The real environmental degradation in oklahoma, hugely important. Then this unexpected change in terms of seismic risk. The way in which that changes the face of Nuclear Power safety. There was a report by the usgs that looked at seismic risk. It pointed to place like indian point and pilgrim and said these are most vulnerable plants. Two plants that received a pass , regarded by the nrc, they were not required to go through post retrofits. That had other scientists concerned. Host you talk about the risk for earthquakes in your book, quick land. You wrote it these for the new york post. That new york city is overdue. Tell us about that. Guest this is an imprecise science. We are able to look at the return rates over several hundred years and looking back , that city has had a moderate quake every several every hundred years. The last one was in the 1800s. This is an issue for a variety of reasons. The rubble a moderate quake would create would be damaging to new york city. I spoke to scientists at Columbia University who have concerns about indian point. It is on a recently discovered fault. Capableple think it is of an earthquake as high as 7. 0. We should say that most of these power plants are overbuilt. The 2011is with washington, d. C. Quake. There was little structural damage to the plant itself. Scientists worry about the auxiliary systems. The cooling systems, the fans, the caps. Could do damage that could result in the release of Nuclear Material. The most extreme example would result in the evacuation of new york city. Host lets go to the phones. Harold is calling from palmdale, california. Caller good morning. Plant, on those copper pipes that started , iking in the cooling system believe, i believe it is the , 80 ofnes in the Water California is on chloramines which has ammonia, nitrates eight the holes in the copper tubing. They did not change the water out, the ammonia got greater and greater because it never leaves the water. That is my theory. I guess that is about it. Guest i cant speak to that directly but i cant say this seenof corrosion, we have a multiple plans including one Fairly Famous example in ohio where an actual cap system had started to corrode. A lot of these types are old. Pipes. Ron or copper has a natural gas pipeline underneath it. They dont age well. They dont do well in seismic activity. There is another large pipeline that is being built right next to indian point. Scientists andof nuclear insiders have said this is a terrible idea. If we look at some of the ,xplosions in these pipelines right next to a Nuclear Power ukishima on thef hudson. Texas wherego to beatrice is on the line. Good morning. Caller good morning. I want to understand why they having so muchut pollutants in the air. Pollution is important and people considered Nuclear Power to be clean. I dont know that they are closing them because of that. If you asked these companies they will tell you they are closing them because it is not Cost Effective to have them open anymore. Some of these plants like pilgrim and indian point, the retrofits youre asking us to complete are so costly we will not turn a profit. Goes back to the deregulation of Nuclear Energy back in 1999 when it became a largely private enterprise. Prior to that we had city, state, municipal systems that on the plants. Starting in 1999 they became privately owned. Their revenue generators. Rate they cease to gene revenue they close. Lets hear from anna calling from west columbia, south carolina. Caller hey. Im concerned about people not knowing what to do if we do have a nuclear meltdown. The aftereffects, such as japan now. We are not prepared for hurricanes, we dont know how to live without power. If the power grid should go off. Had nowas young we electricity orr any conveniences we have now. Water,d by a pump, well wood stove, cold fireplace and lamps. That aree , in casering the foods a emergency should happen should now distributed to the people of puerto rico. Nuclearcerned about the power in case anything should happen and i hope, im glad that orald trump has passed signed on to helping. Research. An interesting point. How real is the threat of a catastrophic failure . What should people do . Guest both great points. Disaster was caused by the tsunami. It was a huge to on me that we would only see possible in a place like portland or seattle. These large 8. 0 quakes. Debate about how much the quake did to the fukushima plant because this mommy arrived so quickly. It remains to be seen. These catastrophic meltdown scenarios are rare. We should say that off the bat. Her point about response is a big one. I spent a lot of time researching coming talking to First Responders. We all need to have plans. Evacuation routes. Civil engineers spend a lot of time planning this and they have them in existence. We should know what they are. Looking at puerto rico is a test case, we see what has happened, the ripple effect, the snowballing effect that happens in a national disaster. So many of us rely on cell phones. That will be one of the first things to go. The electric did the electric grid will go quickly. Are we prepared in the event First Responders cant get to us . They will be trying their best. We have an Outstanding National guard. Private organizations like the red cross. Andthey tell me again again, if there is rubble from an earthquake or flooding from a hurricane or landing a military plane becomes difficult. It is beholden on all of us to have what folks in the industry call a go bag. Supplies for a week. What were seeing in puerto rico is it could be a lot longer. We need to take care of ourselves until help arrives. I think we have to start investing in infrastructure that can withstand this. So that the Recovery Time is shorter and a lot less expensive. This idea of whether we want to invest on the front end and resilient communities or on the back and in terms of recovery. For me, dollar for dollar, money is better spent on the resiliency plan. Host i will read a couple of tweets in rapid succession. Writes, from jody who when Nuclear Plant store their store their waste onsite, they become a target for terrorists. Guest that is a great question. The ocean is helpful because they need to intake that water in terms of cooling. This idea of building on a fault line, we have seen this again and again. Havef the things we discovered through geological studies is we do not know where the overwhelming majority of faults are on this country. There are 2100 known faults. There is probably exponentially more like 200,000 faults in the country. We have not found them yet. One of the ways we have found them is the way through construction of Nuclear Power plants. Diablo, one of the most. Nfamous, they discovered it we dont do it on purpose. The, what is so interesting and troubling about this idea of seismicity in this country. What we know about it is constantly changing. It happened so far underground. Host lets go to fred from denver, colorado. Good morning. Caller good morning. What is the status of research and development of reactors in place of uraniumbased reactors . Last time i read, they were doing most of that work in india. What is the status of research and development . Much happening in the u. S. Right now. It is something people are looking at. Your point about the idea that this is an International Field is important. I dont know plans right now to do that kind of work in the United States. It could be something i missed in my research. Host you told me during the break you have been working on this book for a year. What in the course of writing and researching it really surprised you . Guest the notion of anthropogenic activity. As a species we are doing so much to change the landscape. Thatow as oceans warm hurricanes become larger and more unpredictable. We see things like the incredible rainfall in houston. The idea of induced seismicity and as we start to understand the degree to which we can create earthquakes and some of which are capable of doing damage, that changes everything. From building codes to Emergency Management plans to the way which we respond to our own environments. It is coming to terms of pattern understanding the effects we have us humans, is absolutely crucial going forward. Is a kathryn miles contributor to the boston globe magazine and her book is called quakeland. Thank you so much for your time. Guest it was a pleasure. Host coming up we are taking more of your calls, treats, and ,acebook posts about the news including the resignation of tom price as hhs secretary and the crisis in puerto rico. Democrats call 202 7488000. 01. Ublicans call 202 74880 independents call 202 748 8002. Send us a tweet at http twitter. Com cspanwj. We are also on facebook. This weekend on American History tv on cspan3. Tonight at 8 p. M. Eastern on lectures in history. Professor of virginia Gary Gallagher on the legacy of the civil war. The loyal sitters see said izens had very different views of the war. At 10 a. M. President bill clinton marking the 60th anniversary of the integration of little rock central high school. I wanted to say, you did 60 years, take a victory lap. Put on your dancing shoes. Have a good time. Say, you have to to put on your marching boots. [applause] at 7 p. M. Eastern on oral history. We continue our series on photojournalists within interview. When we were working especially with the white house to have the optimum lens in your hand and the maximum amount of film whenever something happens. Split second, could be there and you have got it, does or doesnt happen. Eastern, hamilton playwright and actor Linmanuel Miranda excepts the u. S. Capital historical societies 2017 freedom award. Youhen you are theater kid make friends in different grades in social groups. You work hard to create something greater than the sum of their parts. You learn to trust your passion and let it lead the way. Artsour humanities and programs, we need those. American history tv all weekend every weekend. Only on cspan3. Washington journal continues. Host welcome back. In the half hour that remains we are taking your phone calls, treats, facebook posts about the news. We have a story from the associated press. The United States has opened channels with north korea and is investigating whether the regime is ready to enter talks and giving up its Nuclear Weapons program. U. S. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson said saturday, thi