Iain, the three paragraphs you've posted are predictable boilerplate that anybody could have written or said. I really don't understand what you expected from Chu, or what you find valuable in his present statement.

Right you are. None of the damage to any of the plants was due to seismic activity. It was soley due to loss of all AC power and loss of emergency diesels.HINT: they dont run well under water

Wisco, there are many situations under which a reactor can fail--and nuclear power plants tend to be built with most of them--if not all of them in mind. With failsafe after failsafe.

Right now we have not yet had a meltdown, no one has died from radiation poisoning--and the plant was hit with a 30 FOOT WALL OF WATER. That should tell you something about safety.

The luddite green future you aspire to would be much less able to cope with this or any disaster. But, since part of that luddite green future involves the lowering of population, I'm sure that for you, this is a feature, not a bug.

wisco: If living with less is truely what you desire. Go for it. Nobody's stopping you.

I keep hearing from nuclear power advocates how this isn't like Three Mile Island. Or it won't get as bad as Chernobyl, but I think overly optimistic pronouncements are just as unhelpful as breathless mutterings of doom by newly appointed pundit-scientists. I think the full scale of this incident and its potential horrors has yet to reveal itself.

Obviously we need substantial amounts of energy to maintain our way of life and recover from our economic troubles, but we can't ignore the potential costs of nuclear power that may out way the benefits of other sources of energy (ex: natural gas).

I think the current exploits of Japan's brave 50 workers at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station will be an important part of the debate in this country on what we are willing to risk for plentiful energy. We should keep in mind many of these workers have already lost their homes and families.

"A small crew of technicians, braving radiation and fire, became the only people remaining at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on Tuesday — and perhaps Japan's last chance of preventing a broader nuclear catastrophe."

"They crawl through labyrinths of equipment in utter darkness pierced only by their flashlights, listening for periodic explosions as hydrogen gas escaping from crippled reactors ignites on contact with air."

"They breathe through uncomfortable respirators or carry heavy oxygen tanks on their backs. They wear white, full-body jumpsuits with snug-fitting hoods that provide scant protection from the invisible radiation sleeting through their bodies..."

"They have volunteered, or been assigned, to pump seawater on dangerously exposed nuclear fuel to prevent full meltdowns that could throw thousands of tons of radioactive dust high into the air and imperil millions of their compatriots."