User blog comment:Phoenixlight13/Japan Earthquake/@comment-1429792-20110318121321

To clarify the clarification: The reactors at Fukushima shut down automatically (as they were designed to do) when the earthquake struck. They are still shut down. The problems stem from a power failure that has stopped the cooling systems from pumping water into the reactors and the back up diesel generators were damaged by the tsunami. Despite being offline, the reactor's fuel rods still need to be cooled and submerged. They are working to connect a 1km long power cable to the plant to restore the cooling system. There is absolutely no danger of it being like Chernobyl because aside from the design of the reactors being different, Chernobyl was active at the time, Fukushima is not online. Japanese authorities are stopping people from eating food from the area and giving out iodine tablets as a precaution, which Chernobyl authorities failed to do.