Too bad Aceofwhat isn’t here - a page he posted last year on Thorium reactors is pretty relevant to any discussions of nuclear power:

3. LFTR operates at high temperature, for 50% thermal/electrical conversion efficiency,thus needing only half the cooling required by today’s coal or nuclear plant cooling towers.

4. It is air cooled, critical for arid regions of the Western US and many developing countries where water is scarce.

Sounds to me like if this technology had been in place instead of conventional nuclear reactors, the threat of a meltdown would have been greatly reduced, and much easier to avoid.