http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/wo....html?ref=asia

"A 1997 study by the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island
described a worst-case disaster from uncovered spent fuel in a reactor
cooling pool. It estimated 100 quick deaths would occur within a range
of 500 miles and 138,000 eventual deaths.

The study also found that land over 2,170 miles would be contaminated
and damages would hit $546 billion.

That section of the Brookhaven study focused on boiling water reactors —
the kind at the heart of the Japanese crisis. "