Question:
Answer:
The Dai-Ichi complex consists of six separate reactors. For purposes of severity level, three of the reactors have recently been grouped together in a single incident. Initially each reactor was rated separately, grouping them together caused the severity level to go from 5 to 7 even though the situation hadn't changed.
Two of the reactors are in cold shutdown and never posed a problem. One of the reactors was off-line for maintenance, and the only issue was keeping the spent pool fuel cool. The other three are where the majority of the concerns about the power plant came from. Bear in mind that the real problem was the tsunami. The power plant problem is minuscule by comparison.
The radioactive level is only of concern in the immediate area of the power plant. It's important to note that no workers have received more than the allowable levels of radiation, and no civilians have either--including those in the evacuation area. Two workers were unfortunately drowned when the tsunami hit.
Here is an informative article describing the situation:
http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/13/fu…
And a slide show:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-n…
At this point there is really just the cleaning up to do. Here is the plan:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com…
Here is where you find current, factual status information:
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsun…
Historical status:
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/2011…
And a slide presentation that describes the effects:
http://www.slideshare.net/iaea/radiologi…
And here is a chart that helps make sense of the numbers:
http://www.xkcd.com/radiation/
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