the nuclear situation in Japan

HERE. This story is already bad, but leaves me with the sense that it’s even worse than anyone is saying.

In some other story I read some source quoted as saying something like “Japanese plants are built to withstand earthquakes, but not at the level of 8.9 earthquakes.” If true, that’s obviously very irresponsible. You’d have to expect an earthquake of that size in Japan once every 100-150 years or so, I think. And given that nuclear power plants last about, say, 40-50 years, chances are pretty good of having massive plant failure.

In addition to the shocking irresponsibility of it in human terms, I would assume it’s a ridiculous business decision too, given how much money will be lost even if this is the only accident in the history of Japanese nuclear energy. Of course I don’t have the numbers in front of me as to how much they earn on nukes and how much one disaster will cost, so I’m speculating here. But one would have to guess that a true meltdown in Japan would cause staggering financial losses along with the obvious human ones.