It is a catastrophe, but not as big of one as it is made out to be. It doesn't help that TEPCO hasn't handled the situation properly, IMO.

The public has a hard time understanding the science behind these type of things, so it is easy to work people into hysterics.

Ask the average person how many people died from Chernobyl, and in general, their answer will differ drastically from the actual number.

Granted, you don't want meltdowns to occur. But this isn't going to cause "mass casualties of aquatic life in nearly every ocean and hazardous levels of background radiation along Pacific coastlines or worse."

How does Bitcoin respond, you ask? It doesn't, they are not related.