All Japanese reactors have their material above ground and are at risk of at least a steam explosion if they are improperly handled. The point is that Fukishima is just as "safe" today as it was for the 20+ years of operation, just instead of producing power all of the processes are around dismantling it. Which is proceeding.
I understand the emotional fear of nuclear power, it is a scary thing for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that you could be dying of radioactive poisoning right now and not know it, and all you need to do to survive is to move over 50 feet but you don't know you have to do that. So you end up dying. That is the giant knot of emotion that wraps up the fear in many cases. I've suggested to folks that have that fear, wear a dosimeter. They are very sensitive, not very expensive, and can completely clear your worry that you have some how stumbled into an unknown radiation hazard. It isn't a stupid or crazy thing to do, it just sets your mind at ease that you are not being dosed with ionizing radiation that you can't see.
Did they dump a lot of 137Cesium into the ocean? Yes they did. Was that more than was dumped by a single nuclear test in the ocean at Bikini Atoll? No it wasn't. There was a paper in Science, not long after the event about tracking the radionuclides [1].
I understand the emotional fear of nuclear power, it is a scary thing for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that you could be dying of radioactive poisoning right now and not know it, and all you need to do to survive is to move over 50 feet but you don't know you have to do that. So you end up dying. That is the giant knot of emotion that wraps up the fear in many cases. I've suggested to folks that have that fear, wear a dosimeter. They are very sensitive, not very expensive, and can completely clear your worry that you have some how stumbled into an unknown radiation hazard. It isn't a stupid or crazy thing to do, it just sets your mind at ease that you are not being dosed with ionizing radiation that you can't see.
Did they dump a lot of 137Cesium into the ocean? Yes they did. Was that more than was dumped by a single nuclear test in the ocean at Bikini Atoll? No it wasn't. There was a paper in Science, not long after the event about tracking the radionuclides [1].
[1] http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6085/1115.summary