The most significant thing made apparent by this nuclear disaster, personally, has been how carefully authorities are forced to step around an uneducated public and a wild, hysterical mass media. How can we ever have transparency and full disclosure while the press are inclined to behave this way?
A bomb might have 100 pounds of nuclear material, fairly efficiently exploded, releasing a lot of energy.
A burning, melting reactor might have 100s of TONS of fuel pellets, which can be aerosolized and distributed to the four corners.
While it's true that reactors contain far more radioactive material, they don't typically "aerosolize" much of it - Tchernobyl was pretty much a worst case scenario in that regard, and Fukushima thankfully was not.
I would say that it was a surprise to everyone involved. Or are you saying that everyone who lives near a nuclear reactor shouldn't be surprised when their homes become uninhabitable? I wonder if the nuclear industry would agree with that statement.
Yeah, better tell everyone in San Diego: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Onofre_Nuclear_Generating_S...
Are they doing anything in light of the Fukushima disaster?
No, but similar age I think
Are they doing anything in light of the Fukushima disaster
I believe they put out some press releases telling people how safe it was.
And it's misleading to call these reactors antiquated. They were built with projected lifespans that go well past the present day, and if you replace them or reduce the lifespans it (badly) affects the cost of Nuclear power.
BTW, if you think that was badly-sites and antiquated then I've got a few others you might want to avoid:
Diablo Canyon, California (Yes, that is the sea): http://papundits.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/diablo_canyon_n...
San Onofre, Ca: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Onofre_Nuclear_Generating_S... (Yes, that's a beach it's build on)
The end result: a few people with radiation burns, a local shortage of electricity, and a release of radiation that - while significant - doesn't come close to the radiation released by the thousands of atomic bomb tests performed in Nevada this last century. An area will be uninhabitable for a while.
Lessons learned: nuclear power is pretty darn safe, although you shouldn't build 50s-style reactors near the coast in a tsunami zone. If you do, don't live nearby. No surprises there.