Nuclear Crisis in Japan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_I_nuclear_accidents

This situation in Japan continues to worry me. Reports of the actual earthquake and tsunami business have died down and have been replaced by reports of Japan's heavily damaged Fukushima nuclear plant. If you don't know what I am talking about, you can read that heavily extensive and constantly updated Wikipedia article up there. Basically, the tsunami damaged the outer shielding of the reactor and destroyed or disrupted the cooling systems. The cooling is probably the most important part of any nuclear reactor. Without cooling, you get what most people call a "meltdown", where the radioactive material gets so hot that it melts through the shielding and releases a lot of radiation.

Depending on what news source you subscribe to, the amount of damage ranges from minimal to Chernobyl. I do not think this is a Chernobyl, but boy does it worry me. The last thing the good people of Japan need is another disaster. Speaking of which, don't you kind of wish they continued reporting on the damage? In Hati, they did it almost continuously. I know that the situations are different, and that Japan is much more adept at taking care of itself, but I have a feeling that there is still widespread damage and I want to know about it.

Anyways, I think we all should be paying close attention to this. This is probably going to be the most well-documented nuclear disaster in history, which is great because that makes it easier to prevent catastrophe. In past disasters, the worst parts happened relatively quietly.