What happend at the Fukushima reactor ?

The 9.0 level earthquake took place in Japan and caused damage to the nuclear reactors. Now the media are disseminating and making up all kinds of bells and whistles around a possible disaster like Chernobly catastrophe. And the mass and some activists rise to protest against nuclear plants plan. So, the earnest question is, is the nuclear industry really so unsafe ? Here is an excellent article speaking of this. His view is that, the event in Japan witnessed the success of the modern technology, rather than a failure that is spread so widely in the media.

As a nuclear engineer, it is depressing to read the recent reports on the Fukushima nuclear incident — not because of the incident itself (at this point I strongly believe that we will remember Fukushima as evidence of how safe nuclear power is when done right) — but because the media coverage of the event has been rife with errors so glaring that I have to wonder if anyone in the world of journalism has ever taken a physics class. My favorite: in one article, boric acid was described as a “nutrient absorber” instead of a “neutron absorber.” How many editors signed off on that line without asking, “Why would a nuclear reactor need to absorb nutrients?”

Whether it is confusion of radiation with radioactive material, flailing comparisons to past accidents, or hopeless misuse of terminology, reporting on Fukushima has been a mix of hype and speculation entirely devoid of useful information. Let’s set the record straight: the situation is under control, it is unlikely that the nuclear fuel has melted, the risk to the public is effectively zero, and, depending on whether facts on the ground have been reported correctly, it is possible that the reactors will remain capable of producing power in the future.