Josepp-

Good point but I believe you are missing the big picture.

It's unclear to me and others how many reactors or spent fuel pools at the Fukushima-1 nuclear complex have been breached. The immediate suspect is the reactor in Unit 3. Here's an update from NIRS (Nuclear Information Resource Service):

"UPDATE, 11:00 am, Friday, March 25, 2011. Greenpeace Germany has released a statement that, according to an analysis of radiation releases by consultant Dr. Helmut Hirsch, Fukushima is now a Level 7 accident on the international scale (currently it is officially ranked as a Level 5, comparable to the Three Mile Island accident of 1979; Level 7 would make it comparable to Chernobyl).

UPDATE, 10:00 am, Friday, March 25, 2011. Three workers were treated yesterday for contamination after walking in highly radioactive water in Unit 3 that is said to have had a dose rate of 20 rems/hour—about 10,000 times above normal. However, even that rate wouldn't be high enough to cause the burns that were reported on the workers, so there is suspicion that the rates were even higher. Radioactive elements were found in the water that are not normally found in reactor cooling water.(emphasis added)

This has led to new open speculation among government and utility officials that the core of Unit 3 has been breached and primary containment has failed (most observers have suggested this for several days). The Japanese Prime Minister has called the situation "very grave and serious." Radiation can be expected to be released from at least Unit-3 for some time. Steam is continuing to be released from multiple reactors at the site—steam releases at this point are certainly radioactive."

If there is a breach in Unit 3, there is still danger of a fuel core explosion and fire, and in the extreme case Units 1, 2, and 4, all going up in succession. The resulting radioactive plume will rival that of Chernobyl and devastate much of Japan for generations. The best case scenario will be a very messy clean-up in and around Unit 3.

Charley Noble