Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 received license extension just the month before it melted down

As reported by the World Nuclear Association (see the third full paragraph, under the section titled  "Recent energy policy: Focus on nuclear"), Japan's Nuclear & Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) granted a 10-year licence extension for Fukushima I-1 (also known as Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1) in February 2011, after technical review and some modifications in 2010. Thus, if Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 had been shut down at the end of its 40 year license, in February 2011, then it likely would not have melted down within just the first several hours after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Unit 1 did scram the instant the earthquake struck, but because it was at 100% power, the loss of electricity to run cooling systems led to the reactor's complete melt down within just several hours. Had the shut down happened in February, although the core would still have needed cooling (or the high-level radioactive waste storage pool would still have needed cooling, if the core had been unloaded into there), it almost certainly would not have melted down in just the first several hours.