Reactor design has long been questioned

As I suggested last night.  When you have a hammer everything looks like a nail.  And that looks like a defectively designed reactor under the Reasonable Alternative design test of the Products Liability Restatement, Section 2.  Turns out others made that observation 40 years ago.  Like I said the mistakes creating the accident are always simple.  It's the complications that ensue that are complex. - gwc

The warnings were stark and issued repeatedly as far back as 1972: If the cooling systems ever failed at a Mark 1 nuclear reactor, the primary containment vessel surrounding the reactor would probably burst as the fuel rods inside overheated. Dangerous radiation would spew into the environment.
Now, with one Mark 1 containment vessel damaged at the embattled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and other vessels there under severe strain, the weaknesses of the design — developed in the 1960s by General Electric — could be contributing to the unfolding catastrophe.

HERE is the Times report