This is going to be a huge blow to the whole "clean" energy crowd. This will be the 3rd major nuclear disaster in the history of nuclear power plants. Those reactors, if they haven't melted down, are still completely trashed due to the seawater being pumped in and the damage to the zirconium cladding on the control rods. Yes, the damage is horrific, but it's going to pale in comparison to what will happen if/when those reactor cores melt down.
if you look at the company that run the reactor and everything else involved the company is at fault. That and the fact that there is no 'independant' nuclear regulatory board in Japan. Unlike the US and France which have a pannel which can pull the companys permits when they fail to meet the required saftey......
read this....
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/03/16/bloomberg1376-LI7CHJ07SXKX01-27JLEJH6UQPBTE0NLL2I2HSRRJ.DTL&feed=rss.news
it shows that failing on the company that owns the plant for the past 10 years is really to blame. the fact that back up gens and eqipment are located in the basement,which is wrong when the company where told this after a small tsunami took it out in 07 if i remember. That and the fact that they contiuned to operate a plant on a fault which has been found to be x2 as big as is safe for a plant of this kind to operate on. It also shows that this disater is really alot worse than japan are telling everyone. To hide short coming in how they operate there nuclear plants. this is seen in the way they should really take this up to a level 6,from level four,,chernobly was a level 7,,4 is when its a localised and 5 means it will affect a wider range of locations,,
Another example is that another company had 4 reactors that got knocked out during an earthquake and are still offline, with little being done to redesgin the plans,,they are just rebuilding it,,(this is another company with other plants not the one thats fucked.)
,and how beacuse of failing to install caps on another reactor which lead to raido-active material(they say within legal limits but really none should be spilt!!!) got washed into the sea after another quake.
This shows that greedy corps. and boards of directors lack the care,or knowledge,, as long as they get paid. Thats why there little investment in re-newalbe energy market beacuse a nuclear plant genartes more cash for a company than re-newables which in the long term will cost more to up-keep and make less power.....
thats me had my rant,,,its not a DISATER if it was preventable,which in this case I belive it was,,if you have got 5 look at that link,,
take it easy all.