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The two incidents are completely different: Chernobyl's reactor exploded (iirc, the graphite moderator caught fire); Fukushima melted down, which is essentially when the fuel gets so hot (due to lack of cooling, which the Tsunami took out) that it melts through the bottom of the reactor containment vessel.

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The core in Chernobyl melted down into the basement as well, fortunately it stopped there.

Yes, but it seems to me, that the risk of further melt downs in Chernobyl is much lower and the core is more divided -- so the situation is stable without cooling. In Fukushima, the cores still have to be cooled, what makes the thing troublesome. You can't just bury a core that has to be cooled ....

As much I remember, in Chernobyl the core stopped before it reached the ground water, because they digged below the core and made it stop -- risking and probably sacrificing further lives.

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