Nuclear plant in japan?

Question:

i have to do a current event on it for school. i have no clue what the nuclear plant is all about, can someone tell me in detail or send me a link?

Answer:

The forty year old plants in Fukushima 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.

Note that no workers were burned by radiation although two were unfortunately killed by the tsunami.

"On 31 March, NISA reported that among the workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, 21 workers have received doses exceeding 100 mSv. No worker has received a dose above 250 mSv, which is the dose limit for emergency workers.", IAEA (second and third links).

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 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/