As General Electric defends the reactors it designed for Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, independent nuclear specialists are also coming to the company's defense...Five of the six reactors at Fukushima I are GE's so-called Mark 1...models, developed in the 1960s and installed in Japan in the 1970s. "I think GE is a hero in this," says Najmedin Meshkati of the University of Southern California..., a nuclear safety expert who has studied power plants worldwide, including at Chernobyl...The Japan nuclear crisis has brought scrutiny on GE for its Mark I design, which was criticized in the 1970s as susceptible to explosion and rupture. Three GE employees quit in 1975 in protest over safety concerns around the Mark 1 and US regulators even considered discontinuing the system..."We’d like to set the record straight," GE said in a statement Friday. "The Mark I meets all regulatory requirements and has performed well for over 40 years."...GE's statement is unlikely to quell critics of the Mark I design. [also refers to TEPCO]