The very worst that could happen is a lot lot less than did happen during the era of testing the A-bombs and then the H-bombs. And that very worst is extremely unlikely.
The Japanese are highly capable engineers and scientists. They have a culture of being very clean and careful.
Of all places for such a rare event to happen, Japan is perhaps the among the best in the world to handle it. The US, I think, would be the best.
I even think that the Japanese will be motivated to develop
detection, remediation and decontamination equipment at levels beyond what is currently available. That would be a great boon, in the age where we can anticipate a possibility of some dirty nuke being used.
And also that we and they will be motivated to combine our nuclear engineering expertise to deal with the spent fuel problem. We made a mess of it and since then have ignored it — see the history of the West Valley Reprocessing Plant near Ashford, New York. That plant reprocessed used fuel rods from 1966 until 1977. Given current clean-plant technology and robotics we should be able to effectively reprocess the spent fuel in ways that would greater lessen the long-term storage risks.
If the Chicken Little-ism gets much worse, I’m thinking about printing up some “I Survived Tsar Bomba and All I Got Was This T-Shirt” t-shirts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba
That being said, and in hopes of taking nothing away from the brave souls dealing with this very serious situation...........there have been many problems and cover-ups in the past, and, also, there appears to be double speak even now...........
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110317/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake_nuclear_scandals
IMHO, the main reasons for this very serious situation are:
1. Tremendous forces of nature, a 9.1 earthquake and a 30 to 50 foot tsunami.......
2. The placement of multiple reactors, not of the best design, a few meters above sea level and close to the shoreline of an ocean, in a country known for earthquakes and tsunamis..............in addition, placing important plant equiptment, outside the reactors, right on the water's edge.............
I believe that these reactors will become a permanent monument to all those who had a hand in placing them there..........
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