Failure of Imagination

The containment vessels on the reactor cores have basically done their jobs but sadly, the biggest threat to pubic safety from the Fukushima reactors has been the loss of external power. While design energy has gone into protecting the public from the hazard of an overheated core, it looks like engineers have been short-sighted in considering the hazard of power loss to the spent fuel cooling pools.

That being said, the largest public safety risk appears to be simply being too close to a coast line. As bad as things are at Fukushima Daiichi, thousands probably lost their lives in an instant from the tsunami. And that loss of life has nothing to do with nuclear energy.