LoM found a video from my friends’ area. They got a pretty rough shaking.
There’s been at least one fatality in Japan’s nuclear troubles. But they have a well-coordinated emergency response going on. They’ll get through it.
Some of the reactor coolant has had to evaporate into the pressure vessel. It’s that that they’ve had to release because of the build-up of pressure. It includes a modest amount of radioactive material, but it isn’t anything on the scale of TMI or Chernobyl yet, even though numerous reactors are involved.
Reactors shut down at first opportunity, as per protocol. But backup diesel generators to run the cooling may have been taken out by the tsunami.
I think some site and procedure review will be in order once everything is under control again.