Why was the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster worse than Three Mile Island? Why is it (probably) not as bad as Chernobyl? How worried are scientists? How worried should you be? In this KITP Public Lecture, Assistant Professor Benjamin Monreal (UCSB Department of Physics) gives an overview of radioactivity and reactors, radiation health and safety, and the ultimate fate of the materials coming out of the stricken reactors in Fukushima. The lecture was followed by a Q&A session with a panel including Theo Theofanous, Professor of Chemical and of Mechanical Engineering, and Patrick McCray, Professor of History, both of UC Santa Barbara. Public Lecture Series sponsored by Friends of KITP March 16, 2011 __________________________________ Learn more at: https://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/ Follow @KITP_UCSB for updates on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kitp_ucsb __________________________________ The position of the KITP is that ownership and copyright of all online material -- slides, text, audio, video, and podcasts -- belongs to the author. KITP is providing dissemination for these materials but does not claim ownership. Any person citing these materials for scholarly purposes should provide an appropriate scholarly reference.