Within that frame of mind, the construction of basic premises with regard to nuclear power/ amidst the reality it will not go away.  Comes the truth of what can we do instead of what has been done.  To create a far greater zone of safety for us all.  No purpose prior too, Fukushima/ because no one was listening; not even after Chernobyl: because that was blamed on an extremely foolish man. Fukushima however reveals ALL or most of the realities in failure of design/ flawed theories and attempts at “we don’t have to care”.
What is better?
The answer to that is a redesign of the entire system.  As is common to the vast majority of men: who continually demand, “look at me/ I am the greatest”; etc.  The reality of boasting, the demand of arrogance, and the extreme power and pride of operating something that can threaten or control the rest is what men WANT.  Consequently, as history proves them to be always wrong/ or substantially wrong about most everything/ the basic redesign is simply WHAT can we do, to eliminate these consequences of disaster and catastrophe;  from our lives by changing the structural reality of what threatens us, into a much more manageable:   what can we do to eliminate the threat to our existence and world?

In reactor design, the functional reality of men has always been: MAKE IT AS BIG AS POSSIBLE, “or more simply make me proud”.  As big as possible is a tremendous threat; proven time and again, with one engineering disaster after another; wherever the parameter of the possibilities exceed their grasp to accept WE CANNOT GAMBLE here.  As is constant with men, there purpose is to be “gods”/ their intent is to make the rest bow down, because “I alone, am the greatest; see what I can do”.  Failure after failure/ rape after rape.
Instead of stupidity, absolute disgrace, and a complete lack of respect for reality: reactor design needs to accomplish three basic things.  Safety first/ critical relief without endangering anyone/ and functional controls even in the worst possible catastrophe. 
These three things are accomplished in the following way:   but it comes with a caveat for all old design reactors.  Retrofits may or may not be possible/ but until they are no longer used: the change they need is to permanently remove about half of the fuel rods, so that the measure of safety increases considerably.  To accomplish that quickly: an immediate and extreme amount of insulating/ solar water heating;  and fundamental change must come.  It is the fastest way, and best. 

Apart from that, in terms of new or retrofit(discarding the old reactor/ building around it).  The critical dimensions of nuclear power require that ideally each reactor must not exceed a total of four fuel rods inside.  That limit allows for far greater strengths involved in housing, and it limits pressure releases and consequences accordingly.  To make this work at a necessary scale:   several of these reactors are spread around in a “spoked wheel arrangement”.  Which means possibly twenty total reactors in any one location.  Which are tied by piping to a central heat exchange distributor for steam distribution.  That single pipe steam then turns the turbine.  Within this design, if a reactor goes into an extreme pressure stage, the initial pressure relief simply directs the excess pressure into the distributor and no real upset, or release of radiation from the system exists.  “Its just one of twenty”.  If one reactor goes down, or must be taken out of service, that leaves the other 19 still working/ no real upset or problems.  If one reactor melts down/ with only four fuel rods, there should be no real threat of a melt through.  WHICH IS, very critical because when extreme and intense heat hits concrete: the concrete is expanded more rapidly than the bonds can hold, and it simply disintegrates in a hurry/ letting the melt go through.  Hold a propane torch up to your sidewalk, with safety glasses on, and you will understand.  So then what we need between the concrete and under the primary steel containment: are several layers of boron or asbestos; or other substances which are believed to be useful in this situation. The floor of each reactor bin, needs a drain, and independent holding tank for water.  So that the reactor area can be back fed with water to aid in this relief, should something go wrong. These drains are fitted with one way valves/ which will extend to all useful area’s so that independent means of delivering that water is available.  Each reactor gets its own containment zone.  Which simply means, “like a piece of pie”/ each reactor will have independent walls, with a cap that can be removed; but is intended to be in place unless work is being done.
Most important to this design is the singular truth that each reactor shall have its own pump and motor/ multiplied by two. Its own independent source of water: a specific pool: with means to use another in cases of emergency. This is a visual reference to what is happening.  And dedicated delivery piping:   with valving to allow tapping the source of water within another reactor if it is necessary. Each reactor shall have its own independent backup generator.  NOT one or two large generators/ but twenty independent generators with enough capacity to run more. Spread around the reactor wheel and in close proximity to the reactor it serves, with shielding in between. 

The most critical reality of earthquake damage is to the piping involved.  Therein in a two cycle system where one cycle is the radioactive water/ and the other cycle is steam water.  We discuss the radioactive water first.  This being highly dangerous it needs the simplest possible system design.  Which means this water per independent reactor must sit underneath the reactor itself.  Whereby the pump sits directly above and in very close proximity to the reactor, on a shaft that connects it with the motor/ through a tube that is high enough so as under no circumstance, can the water rise to this level and simply run out.  That means both water and reactor and this piping will work together no matter what occurs with ground movement.  It also means, that should a meltdown occur/ the melt will run into the water container first; and even without water you can run sodium into the tank or whatever it is you believe would help in dissipating this heat. A pressure relief is required/ and a method of separating the melt into different globs is necessary to aid in controlling the environment.  Such as a pyramid in the tank directly under the reactor.  That leaves us with the hot loop, to the heat exchanger.  This is much harder to control, and as a consequence it does not get to be simple.  Regardless, the primary objective is stability.

  The most stable relationship this apparatus can achieve is to be built upon a table that is functionally supported by hydraulic cylinder on a slide table.  The entire reactor wheel, with active supporting hydraulic cylinders on the side walls to interrupt and contain excess motion.  You now have another level of containment possibilities below the reactor, if it melts through the radioactive pool.  This area also needs to be fill-able with water.  Being an independent unit, makes the assembly nearly invulnerable to attack, by motion.  Establishing a containment wall and ceiling around the entire assembly, gives you the option to enclose with a third layer of protection. 
That leaves the steam fitting from the heat distributor and its fresh water flow to contend with.  These are not as serious/ but VERY IMPORTANT, because if you are not taking away the heat/ then the heat is rising, and endangering the whole reactor wheel.  Consequently we want the heat exchanger to be independent and on top of   each reactor.  With its own flow/ its own pumps and motors/ from a source of water than literally cannot be impeded or run dry without several days of maximum use.  The use of common means to hook fresh water supplies to these heat exchanger’s is acceptable as they represent no great threat.  Even so, it is necessary that there must be more than one incoming pipe/ pump and motor in case of damage to the other.  With backup supplies as in fire hydrant style hookups around the reactor wheel in case of need.  So then all that is left is the steam vent/ which must be stable enough to accept a high pressure pulse of steam: which means oversized.  These are gathered together in the center of the reactor wheel, to become one large steam pipe going to the turbine.
With some forethought you can make them realistic to remove one at a time so that a new independent reactor could be installed.

Necessary to this and all nuclear reactors is a place to dump the radioactive waste, that could occur.  As in build it over an empty oil reservoir or the like, several thousand feet down into the earth: so that this can be pumped deep inside the earth and not present a serious problem.  Nuclear reactors should never be build on top of water aquifers, because if it does go horribly wrong incalculable harm can result.
Water supplies are necessary.  Pumps and generators,  driven by turbine engine, using the gases produced when a reactor is in trouble, are necessary; in case of complete electrical blackout. Water Storage facilities that are high enough to provide gravity relief for several days at maximum drain/ including the potential for ground loss due to a breach in containment.  Which means a flexible membrane for this pool or pond.   But that also means threat of a flood at any time.  Which requires the appropriate backup components to assure this is not going to happen here.  Independent fuel tanks for the backup generators that can be used by gravity feed and valves to run a general fuel feed if necessary.

There can be no buildup of old fuel rods/ once heat relief has occurred, these must be moved to the only spot on earth which will allow the massive dumping of nuclear waste required.  The deepest part of the ocean/ all nations comply.  Critical structures and equipment/ containment cells for packaging independent fuel rods/ and the necessary transportation systems must all be in place at all times.  NO SUPPORTED FUEL ROD POOLS, above the earth surface/ built on a slide table is best, with secondary and more levels of safety (pool inside a pool; with a flexible membrane for additional safety).  Built on sand if you must, but in no way connected so as to breach the vessel if the earth shakes.
Fire as is seen in Fukushima is not to be tolerated. Concrete or stainless/ no paint.  Three large pipes for carrying water or other, shall be built onto the top of the building, with a large spreader directly underneath for distributing this water supply/ or other.  Built on top of berm’s which allows gravity feed to occur gives the opportunity for several trucks of various kinds to be used in an effort to bring water to bear on the reactor.  Giving some reality of safety to the workers/ thereby granting they will in fact, do the job.  This arrangement needs a tank at the appropriate height/ with an arrangement of piping that would allow for numerous trucks and traffic to occur.  Three pipes, so that different locations can be used in case of radioactive fallout/ one WILL be safer. The flow of water turns the spreader.

The use and need for electricity in this arrangement is minimized by the use of an independent generator per reactor.  But even so, the actual wiring needs to be kept to a minimum in this reactor building.  Consequently we look to basic needs and real world possibilities.  Through the use of a shaft, in the radioactive tank to pump water we can incorporate a flow turbine to pump that water/ in association with an electric pump.  Heat rise will cause the water to move on its own, which means that energy can be used to pump its own water/ eliminating the need for electricity or reducing it.  Electric must be incorporated, for safety.  Apart from sensor wiring/ THIS is the only electricity the building needs. Issues of fuel rods/ and control rods are different.
To establish minimum wiring in the building the electricity supply/ breakers/ generator are located outside the containment wall, with two distinct wiring assemblies bringing power to the electric pump. One is a backup/ and shall be run in a different formation than the other.  The pump itself shall have two independent means of wiring the motor.

There are to be NO control rooms/ turbines or other within the reactor containment chamber: these are all in another building so as to eliminate the threat of fire; extremely small though it may be.  The most severe threat in this arrangement is the hydraulic oil under the slide table/ which means it shall not be.  The alternative is to use gas in the cylinders with only a small amount of room for the cylinders to move/ easily replaceable.  The hydraulic pressures work against the gas instead of the plunger.  Hydraulics are separated in an independent building. Slide tables are basically two sheets of steel with grease between them. Gas cylinders will absorb the bounce of up and down motion in an earthquake. There is no good reason to use equipment that can cause an explosion in the reactor building/ doing it by hand.
That leaves us with the upper portion of the building, which must be used for replacing fuel and control rods. The common cranes will be necessary, and as I am completely unfamiliar with the standard operation of this work;   I leave it to you to design something safe. It does seem likely to me however that a new design is needed incorporating a revolving drum like a six shot pistol, to rotate fuel rods in and out, so as to eliminate the worst dangers involved.  These inside a containment/ with another containment inside for the working rods.  In reality this is expected to be a two part revolvement of rods/ no more.  The spent rod moves out/ spins around and the mechanism pushes the new rod into the working core.  Water is then removed from the outer containment so as to remove the spent rod from the reactor containment.

 The depositing of spent fuel rods into an outside pool for heat subsidence is considered to be better done with a slide system.  A large pipe sloped at a downward angle into the spent fuel pool.  Whereby a fuel rod is removed/ placed in a suitable container/ and sent down the slide to be dealt with in the pool after it is under water.  Spent fuel pools must have a containment dome/ fitted with appropriate piping from several sources so as to provide water relief if that is needed.  This spent fuel slide will also operate in coordination with the three large delivery pipes for water mentioned earlier/ as this is the safest means of filling a pool if required in an emergency.
The suspension of these pipes rather than the support of pipes is best in all aspects of earthquake design; keep it in mind.
The use of modular units, allowing very small independent power generation;   is an issue that requires its own set of variables; including the ability to transport the assembly in one single piece if its approaching meltdown/ WITH MINIMAL RISK to the surrounding area.  Plus the critical means of dealing with the consequences.  OR it requires the necessary arrangements to use this   power generation plant from underneath a large lake so as to be completely certain of gravity flow, and thereby cooling regardless of the possibilities.