It's funny, my comment originally went in more depth specifically calling out how nobody in the US younger generations would know about 3 Mile Island, but decided to edit it back. To me, to even equate 3 Mile Island to Chernobyl isn't even in the realm of sane. What's the exclusion zone around 3 Mile Island? Exactly.

My bet would be future generations in Japan will be very aware of Fukushima. Stipulating that Russians knowing about things in Ukraine is totally different than the Japanese knowing about things in their backyard.

3 mile island was a nothingburger, though.

Core meltdown is never a nothing burger. The containment vessel worked though, so at least the engineering was sound.

Revisionist bullshit. It was bad enough to cause the reactor to be removed from service permanently.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident

Perhaps Castle Bravo would be a closer comparison? I think the point stands.