If Austin or New Jersey had either the area or population close to that of Japan, maybe these would be relevant comparisons.
Ok, let's reframe: I shouldn't even have bothered. Comparing the population density of a country like Japan to a state like California (as you originally did) is meaningless.
I guess you've been reading different news than than I have. What I've been reading says three of the reactors have exploded and a fourth has caught fire.
Then you've read wrong, or at least drawn the wrong conclusions from it. I haven't read up on the 3rd explosion, but two of them were "cosmetic" in nature and only affected the building structure around the reactors (the purpose of the structure is to keep weather out and is not designed to keep nuclear material in). Neither of the reactors "exploded." Yes, there were explosions at the reactors, but those are two very different things.
I still don't agree that this is a disaster by many reckonings of the term, but I recognize that people are free to define the severity to invoke it as they wish. I just happen to disagree.
Now, whether it escalates to the scale of Chernobyl (or larger) remains to be seen.
Ok, let's reframe: I shouldn't even have bothered. Comparing the population density of a country like Japan to a state like California (as you originally did) is meaningless.
I guess you've been reading different news than than I have. What I've been reading says three of the reactors have exploded and a fourth has caught fire.
Then you've read wrong, or at least drawn the wrong conclusions from it. I haven't read up on the 3rd explosion, but two of them were "cosmetic" in nature and only affected the building structure around the reactors (the purpose of the structure is to keep weather out and is not designed to keep nuclear material in). Neither of the reactors "exploded." Yes, there were explosions at the reactors, but those are two very different things.
I still don't agree that this is a disaster by many reckonings of the term, but I recognize that people are free to define the severity to invoke it as they wish. I just happen to disagree.
Now, whether it escalates to the scale of Chernobyl (or larger) remains to be seen.
Highly unlikely, but yep, remains to be seen.