tentative agreement between the united states and five world powers. in exchange the u.s. agreed to give iran billions and billions of dollars in sanction relief. one of the things we ll have to do is wait and see if it was worth those concessions. we have the president of plowshares fund and frank gaffney, president of center for security policies. nice to have you both with us today. thank you, jenna. jenna: before i get into uranium enrichment and centrifuges, really exciting stuff about nuclear technology, let s start here, joe. iran is the number one state sponsor of terror. because of what is happening within the country now and this agreement are we safer today then last week? we are safer because of their, they have stepped back on their nuclear program. it doesn t do anything to address these broader concerns that you raised. it doesn t decrease their support for hezbollah. it doesn t decrease their support for assad. that s the kind of treatment you might be able to get d
plowshares fund, author of a new book, nuclear nightmares, securing the world before it is too late. sounds appropriate. thank you. frank gaffney, former assistant secretary of defense for international security policy as well. great to have you both. let me begin with you, joe and with that question. is it realistic, the goal of rounding up all the chemical weapons and destroying them? this is something we know how to do although we haven t done it in the midst of a civil war. we have international inspection teams that worked on these kind of things for 20 years. they helped eliminated chemical weapons in 15 different countrieses. inspected 86 countries. we have experience eliminating chemical weapons in iraq and eliminating chemical weapons in libya. this is a very, very tough job and we can do it and it is far easier than the alternatives. u.s. presidents always wanted to get rid of assad s chemical weapons stockpile. it is a major threat that israel faces. president obama is clo
harris: growing concerns over radiation expose your till in japan. the government adding several more towns to the evacuation zone after sealing off the area within 12 miles of the fukushima nuclear plant just yesterday. they made the list longer. meanwhile, the government is putting up more road blocks manned by police to make sure people done try to get in. this is brand new video from the town of fukushima taken by somebody who ignored, obviously, the orders to keep out. there s a big penalty for that now. you can go to jail for 30 days if you don t listen. believe it or not, people have been sneaking back into their homes to retrieve their belongings because they don t know how long it s going to be until they can occupy that area. joe is here, he is a nuclear expert and president of plowshares fund. thanks for being here with us. sure. harris: i want to get an idea of how long the wait could be and how serious the danger still is within that 12-mile radius around that nuke site.
reporting slightly elevated radiation levels in water. now, the japan disaster just for some context here is now expected to be the costliest in history with damages of $300 billion. that s followed by a quake in japan back in is 895 and hurricane katrina 1995. paul carol roll is program directer of plowshares fund and has worked on nuclear west issue nuclear waste issues. paul, let s start with the levels of radiation we re detecting here at home. the long-term effect, as we continue to see radiation levels not just today, but in the weeks and months to come, what does the build-up do? is there such a thing as radioactive build-up? is. well, you ask a very good question. the nature of radiation is not very well understood when it comes to long-term exposure at low levels. and that s why when we talk about risk, what we can say is
president of the plowshares fund joins me from washington. let s talk, if you can, about this cesium which has apparently leaked from this plant. what is it and how concerned should we be about it? cesium is a highly radioactive element that is produced in the fuel rods during the fission reactions. so while the fuel rods are in the reactor producing heat. and it was released in the atmosphere during the controlled steam release earlier today and late last night. and that was the sign that something was wrong with the reactor rods. because the cesium could only be released if the water levels in the reactor had fallen below the reactor rods, exposing the reactor rods to the air and releasing some of that cesium. so it s a warning sign that all