Nuclear Meltdowns

People are scared of the thought that the Japanese nuclear plants will melt down.

And rightly so.

Are is it rightly?

The following nuclear plants have melted down:
Chalk River, Canada, 1952 - result, plant is lost, no harm to the public
Windscale, Great Britain, 1957 - result; plant is post, large release, little harm to the public
Santa Susanna, California, 1959 - result; plant returned to operation, no harm to the public
Fermi 1 near Chicago, 1966 - result; plant is lost, no harm to the public
Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, 1979 - result; plant is lost, no real release, no harm to the public

The only deadly accidents to date were at SL-1 in Idaho, where three operators died - but that was a reactivity excursion, not a meltdown; and at Chernobyl, where 31 people died and perhaps 4,000 people got thyroid cancer - but again this was a reactivity excursion, not a meltdown.

I pray that Japan is spared further death and despair. But nuclear meltdown, especially four days after the plants shut down, is not the horror that it has been portrayed.

http://www.nei.org/newsandevents/nei-backgrounders/myths--facts-about-nuclear-energy/myths--facts-about-safety/