You're right, it doesn't represent Americans as a whole, but all these bullshit facebook and twitter posts make everyone look like ****s, rightly or wrongly.
Anyway, the headlines will soon be "Radiation!!! In 1 hour at the Fukashima plant, you will be exposed to 8 times what you would naturally pick up over a year!!!!!!!!! Apocalypse!!!!". Of course, what they won't mention is that the amount of background radiation you recieve over a year is roughly 2.5 mSv, so the amount you get from standing right beside the reactor is 25mSv, which is 0.025 Sv. Now, to start feeling slightly sick you need to get 1 Sv in the space of about an hour, and 5 Sv gets you really ill. So realistically, you would have to stand beside the reactor for the next 40 hours, and even then you wouldn't even get sick.
Of course, there is quite a big threat that it's going to go tits up, fast, but sensationalist bullshit does my head in. Also the fact that BBC news have been speaking to bullshitting 'greenpeace' members as if they are ****ing experts on nuclear physics does my head in.