Folks, we seem to be getting two, completely opposite, stories about Fukishima, so it is all getting rather blurred.
So, how about looking at accounts from people who have actually been to Fukushima since the accident?
Here's a report from a journalist (Martin Fackler of The Telegraph), who visited in November 2011. (There's a typo in one of the paragraphs and I assume that it is the no. 3 reactor that was intact). The high radiation levels do seem to have been concentrated around the plant itself. I find the report of all the tanks of contaminated water alarming (what are they going to do with all that water?). I also wonder what they are going to do with the growing pile of radioactive waste (i.e. clothing, masks). Note that he did not report on the fuel rods, so perhaps this problem was hidden from the visiting journalists.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...r-reactor.html
Journalists were guided around the plant again in February 2012, but the following seems to be a typical report from that visit: http://english.sina.com/world/p/2012/0221/441780.html
Here's a recent report for The New York Times that we should perhaps regard as having some integrity (those fuel rods are a problem and the stricken plant is vulnerable in case of an earthquake): http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/wo...lant.html?_r=1
Here's an interesting little snippet about the official cover-up of how bad things are at Fukushima: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/ju...ails-criticism
And here is a wonderful account I found from someone who was in Fukushima that day: http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2...-saloncom.html
I started this post with high hopes of unearthing some facts; instead I found a lot of misinformation from both sides. Something else strange happened - after a few searches my virus protection program started to identify every page I opened regarding Fukushima as a potential red-flag threat.