Actually, all the doom and gloom about the nuclear reactors is wrong. The media has been sensationalizing it for nothing. There was really very minimal danger since the beginning of the meltdown because all of the reactors were shut off already or "scammed". The reason why there's a "meltdown" is because the element that is used to power the reactor in the core melts when it decays. A meltdown is actually a very broad word. In chemistry, you learn that all elements decay and have something called a "half life" that tells you the speed at which they decay and the way they measure it is how long it takes for there to be only half of the material left.
With the reactors powered down already, none of the material in the core was even active or producing enough energy to even really be dangerous. The only thing is that it gives off heat as it decays, so they use water to cool it so it doesn't go through the containment barrier. Even if it did though, it would just be messy and would fall into another barrier at the bottom that will prevent it from leaking into the environment and doing damage to anything. The amount of radiation that's around the plant isn't even enough to cause damage to the human body or even make you sick really. You just wash it off and go on your merry way.
Here's some excerpts and FAQs written on forums by people who actually work at nuclear power plants:
With the reactors powered down already, none of the material in the core was even active or producing enough energy to even really be dangerous. The only thing is that it gives off heat as it decays, so they use water to cool it so it doesn't go through the containment barrier. Even if it did though, it would just be messy and would fall into another barrier at the bottom that will prevent it from leaking into the environment and doing damage to anything. The amount of radiation that's around the plant isn't even enough to cause damage to the human body or even make you sick really. You just wash it off and go on your merry way.
Here's some excerpts and FAQs written on forums by people who actually work at nuclear power plants:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3396817
http://www.gaiaonline.com%2Fforum%2Fjapan-8-9-great-quake%2Fwhy-you-all-don-t-need-to-worry-about-the-reactors-in-japan%2Ft.70235911%2F&h=78c2b
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