hey, wannabe expert here. let me talk a little about this, to fulfill all chlichees, because that one is the last one missing, so here I go:

the reactor was shut down imediately. no real damage done. a small leak was detected, but its under control now and everything is fine.

the meltdown that everybody talks about was not about the core. it was about the cooling system that needed to be active while the reactor shuts down. america handled that with sending in air supply (bad, bad america, bad terrorist america sheesh, stop doing that) and by the end of the day (japanese day, sunday) everything should be nicely under control.
wannabe expert opinion closed...

ps.: we need nuclear power. cant survive without it. end of discussion...

edit: hundrets of thousands did not die. a few hundret at max. japanese people are used to earthquakes. not that size, but still...