Is the Japanese nuclear industry inept to not handle the nuclear crisis?

Question:

US is now sending bots to Japan to help with the crisis over there. I think Japan is not ready for nuclear energy anymore. TEPCO is retarded. After all this is said and done, there will be alot of impeaching and firing to do...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_us_japan_nuclear

Answer:

If anything, the situation shows how safe nuclear power is. Consider that forty year old 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/

You have to keep in mind that the media is out for ratings and that they are not in the business of disseminating "Just the facts, Ma'am".