It was only a partial meltdown, some cooling systems failed and it was successfully contained! Safety precautions designed to stop a full meltdown and release of radiation succeeded.

I know that's not really the point of your comment but I feel like this particular incident has a lot of misinfo and I wanted to help elucidate what happened.

[–] techt@lemmy.world 7 points 8 hours ago

This isn't true -- radioactive gases were leaked into the surrounding area. The containment vessel remained intact, and NRC concluded that no measurable harm was done, but there was definitely a release and that's why it was such a big deal. They evacuated children and pregnant women from the area in response.

https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2010/ML20106F218.pdf

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 8 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Exactly. A properly run nuclear plant can be extremely safe.

[–] hydrospanner@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

A properly run nuclear plant will also expose people living within a 50 mile radius of the plant to less radiation than if it were a coal fired plant.