Those pictures show how real it is. I don't know much about the cercumstances for this nuclear disaster, but I do know that our power plants in the US are much better controlled.
After reading about Three Mile Island, which did upgrade it's emergency status to the highest level, but only eventually. Human error was to blame for the Pennsylvania nuclear power plant. They didn't report the problem, they didn't take care of the problem. They actually did things to make it worse, like completely shut off the cooling system for the reactor B)
Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, which I have close ties too ;-) has been and is one of the safest nuclear energy operations in the world. We received our extended licenses before anyone else, including military reactors!
While the chance for a nuclear disaster in the US, is remote. It can happen, and many new safety proceedures are in place since Three Mile Island. Heck, President Carter went to visit the scene of the nuclear accident because it wasn't known how dangerous it really was at the time! My main concern with nuclear energy now, and in the future is the whole thing with nuclear waste. It's there, and there is lots of it. And it's sitting in cooling pools and storage facilities on site at every nuclear power plant in the country.
