Great article here about the success of the reactors in Japan in the face of this catastrophe. Of course things are looking dire and all, but these reactors have taken terrible beatings and power failures on just about every back up system preventing cooling and operation—far exceeding what they were built to sustain. The title of the article is alarmist: just because the Japanese can build reactors this steadfast does not mean, not by any stretch of the imagination, that the USA or any other country could build them (and maintain them) this solidly. Especially here, one year you’d have budget cuts that reduced the staff and staff pay, and then the next it would be privatized and the next year OSHA standards would be reduced to ‘allow more business to be done’ and then boom.