While I wish these points got more respect, as Jordan points out they don't necessarily fall on the side of nukes. At a minimum it appears the current clusterfuck could have been avoided by the expedient of having the backup generators out of reach of the scale of tsunami that had already struck up the coast twice in the past century, and perhaps not having the electrical switching gear in the basement as I've read.
Oops. Not to mention keeping spent fuel rods -- evidently not spent enough -- cool with something other than the exact same plumbing, not conveniently next to the core containment, making it unhealthy to approach one when the other is getting randy.
I guess I'd have more confidence in the technical solutions if we had that human problem licked.
And while Chuck and many others I know should probably take a deep breath (provided they're not immediately downwind), the behavior I've found more interesting is one I've seen among some climate science bloggers -- generally sensible types -- to point in the direction of people who say it's no big deal, calling the situation "under control" and praising the plant for having "survived the tsunami".
I wonder if this odd faith has something to do with the expectation of nukes saving our butts from ourselves.
You can watch it unroll here: http://bravenewclimate.com/ A lot of the technical info is actually rather good when you ignore the Iraqi information minister act.
-- Andy