Scott: What is up? It is Monday, March 16. I am Scott Evans and Channel One News
starts right now.
Let's start off with headlines, and first up, dozens may have been killed after a tropical
cyclone as strong as a category five hurricane hit the island nation of Vanuatu. The
remote island chain is located between Hawaii and Australia in the South Pacific. Now,
the storm is one of the most powerful to ever make landfall in the region.
Residents tried to salvage what they could in the capital city of Port Vila. Many rode out
the storm in emergency shelters.
Cyclone Pam lashed this chain of islands in the South Pacific with nearly 170 mile per
hour winds. Early reports suggest entire villages may have been destroyed.
Vanuatu's population of 267,000 is spread over 65 islands. It was the location of CBS's
"Survivor" in 2004.
Communication is down, so many of the islands are cut-off, making damage estimates
and death tolls hard to determine. But the UN says 90 percent of homes in the capital
were damaged.
Aid groups say the priority is getting residents food, water and shelter. The death toll is
expected to rise.
An arrest has been made in connection to the shooting of two police officers in
Ferguson, Missouri. The shooting took place last Thursday as protests were winding
down outside the Ferguson Police Department.
Police arrested 20-year-old Jeffrey Williams yesterday. He is now charged with several
criminal charges, including firing a weapon from a vehicle.
Williams admitted to firing the shots, but says he was shooting at someone else. Police
recovered the gun that was used, and both officers who were shot are recovering.
Alright coming up, it is a weapon that can wipe an entire city in seconds. We kick off our
series taking a closer look at nuclear weapons.
Today, Secretary of State John Kerry is in Switzerland where the U.S. and five other
countries are in the middle of nuclear talks with Iran, negotiations that have caused
international tensions and heated debate.
Yet no one has even used a nuclear weapon in war for 70 years. So why does everyone
care about them so much? And what exactly is a nuclear weapon? Maggie Rulli takes a
deeper look.
Maggie: In an instant, it took more than 70,000 lives.
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Shigeko Sasamori: So many people just dead on the street.
Maggie: The most powerful weapon ever created.
Eric Schlosser: These are the most deadly, dangerous, machines on earth.
Maggie: Nuclear bombs. Many fear they could lead to the end of the world.
Schlosser: There’s no question, nuclear weapons are the greatest threat that we face.
And they're the threat that we're not paying enough attention to.
Maggie: But others say they are saving our world.
Garrett Harencak: They exist for one reason, and that’s to defend America and our
friends and defend our values, our way of life.
Male: It is a massive, massive responsibility. And it's not something that anybody takes
lightly.
Maggie: Right now, it is believed that nine countries have nuclear weapons, with more
than 16,000 total nukes in the world. Experts say it would only take 100 nuclear
explosions to devastate our planets’ climate, killing tens of millions.
That's why the world fears who has control of that massive power. And who is trying to
get it.
Alan Carr: Today, it’s not the number of weapons that’s dangerous. It’s the number of
proliferators. There are more countries that have nuclear weapons and pursuing them.
It’s not just a bilateral issue anymore.
Maggie: Well, several countries now have nuclear weapons; nearly all of the world's
stockpile is controlled by the U.S. and Russia. We currently spend more on our nuclear
arsenal than any other country. And at this very moment have nearly 2,000 nuclear
warheads on high alert, ready to use on short notice.
For the past 70 years, scientists have been using this remote location in Los Alamos,
New Mexico to test nuclear weapons.
This is Los Alamos National Laboratory. In the 1940s, in the middle of world war two,
Los Alamos was the center for the Manhattan Project, a top secret mission that
employed nearly 130,000 across the country.
Carr: The Manhattan Project was really one of history’s most secret projects. Nobody
knew what was going on.
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Maggie: The country's smartest minds, trying to tap into the power of the atom. Their
goal, create the world’s first nuclear weapon.
It all starts in the nucleus of an atom. Fission, when atoms are split, or fusion, when
atoms are fused, cause an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction that releases massive
amounts of energy. Today's nuclear weapons use both fission and fusion to create
almost unimaginable destructive power.
Alan explains that around the project, life continued normally. While in secret, those
scientists changed the course of history.
Carr: The initial goal was to beat Hitler to the nuclear bomb. Can you imagine a world
where only Adolf Hitler had access to nuclear weapons? That was what we were up
against early on.
Maggie: What was that pressure like for the people working in this lab?
Carr: The pressure was really immense on the scientists when you think about it. They
worked long days, worked six days a week. And the reason why was they had to wake
up every morning wondering if they were going to read about London, for instance,
being hit with a Nazi nuclear weapon.
Maggie: Motivated by fear and competition, the first nuclear weapon was developed in
just about 28 months.
Carr: The July 16, 1945, we conduct the world’s first nuclear test. That test was a
remarkable success. It achieved a yield of 21,000 tons of TNT.
Before this had happened, it had taken hundreds and hundreds of bombers hours and
hours to deliver that kind of firepower. Now, you could do it with one bomber and a few
kilograms of uranium or plutonium. This revolutionized warfare, it really changed the
world.
Maggie: While Germany had already surrendered, World War II raged on in the Pacific.
And now thanks to the Manhattan Project, the U.S. had a new weapon and was ready
to show its power to the world.
Alan: In developing the nuclear weapons at Los Alamos, we gave policy makers in
Washington an option for bringing the war to an abrupt halt.
Maggie: And they chose two cities in the Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
It was in this exact location when at 8:15 in the morning on August 6, 1945, the first
nuclear weapon was dropped in war. Instantly, this entire area was devestated.
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The heat from the blast lasted only three seconds, but it was enough to literally melt the
skin off of people's bodies. We are told that the resulting blast then ripped this skin from
people.
The fingernails were the only things left to hold people together. And people could be
seen walking around after the blast with their skin just literally handing from their
fingertips.
Just days later, Japan surrendered, ending years of war.
It was a manmade devastation the likes of which no one had ever seen, and has never
been seen since. The U.S. is the only nation that has used a nuclear weapon in war.
Male 2: Bottom line, they’re here to stay.
Maggie: Over the few days, we will look at how the bomb forever changed the way we
wage war, the reasons we fight for peace, and how nuclear weapons have helped
establish America's status in the world.
Maggie Rulli, Channel One News.
Scott: Thanks Maggie, can't wait to see the next part tomorrow.
And we have got an interactive nukes feature for you up at our website, so head to
Channelone.com to check it out.
And after the break, it is a pie to the face for the principal.
Arielle is here now with a story about a pretty hilarious stunt.
Arielle: Yeah, the act itself might be funny, but the cause is nothing to laugh at.
Students, teachers and the surrounding community all pitched in to help a fellow student
in need.
Throwing a pie at a math teacher is something some students would love to do. Well,
that's exactly what these students did, all to support a classmate battling leukemia.
Almond Bancroft eighth grader Jake Stuebs received more than $2,000 in money raised
by his school. To celebrate the students’ efforts, teachers and the principal agreed to
get pied.
In total, the school has raised $2,300 hundred dollars to help pay for Jake's medical
treatments. And his mom says the support is overwhelming.
Jake’s leukemia is now in remission, but he still has a long fight ahead. So, the school
will continue to raise money for the next few weeks.
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Scott: Well that’s a pretty cool story. And good luck to them. And with that, we are out of
time. Have a great day, and we will see you tomorrow.
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