How is Japan allowing ?

Question:

the company that is responsible for the nuclear plants dictate to the country and the government how i high to jump and run..this isnt American where BP allowed who they wanted in the gulf of Mexicoo for the first 3 weeks of the spill..

Answer:

You can't compare the two. The Gulf oil spill happened under normal conditions and what seems like bureaucratic bungling occurred.

The forty year old Fukushima plants were hit with an earthquake five times the strength they were designed for and yet they still shut down safely. The generators came on like they were supposed to when grid power was cut. Then the tsunami hit and the generators were wiped out. However, the battery backup still worked for the designed eight hours. The problem happened when no new generators could be put in. Even so the problems have been minimal--media scare mongering for ratings not withstanding.


Here is an informative article describing the situation:
http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/13/fu…

And here is where you find current, factual status information:
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsun…

And here is a chart that helps make sense of the numbers:
http://www.xkcd.com/radiation/