“I understand 5 years til they could examine to see how far it had gone [three mile island] ... most were shell shocked with the discovery how bad it actually was.”
That’s correct. But despite the severity of the core meltdown, the three mile island problem was contained by the containment vessel. That’s very likely the result in Japan.
The big remaining danger is that the earthquake compromised one or more of the containment vessels. As long as that doesn’t happen, the loss of power in Japan from the loss of these reactors will kill a whole lot more people than the multiple meltdowns will.
This is actually the first scary piece of news I have read on the situation:
“The appeal for help comes as the the Japanese government confirmed that part of the container housing the troubled nuclear reactor appears to be damaged.
Damage to the hermetically-sealed reactor container dramatically increases the risk of serious radiation leaks.”
What makes me a little skeptical of it is that the article was posted at about 3 am this morning my time (US). If it were true, it should be the main headline everywhere. All of the exposed rods stuff is small peanut compared to a possible breach of the containment vessel.