Choppers Douse Japan Reactor With Water as Situation Deterioriates

[Jazzy]

YAMAGATA, Japan -- Emergency workers frantic to regain control of Japan's dangerously overheated nuclear complex turned to increasingly elaborate methods Thursday to cool nuclear fuel rods at risk of spraying out more radiation.



They tried with police water cannons, heavy-duty firetrucks and military helicopters dropping bucket after enormous bucket of water onto the stricken system.



By nightfall, it wasn't clear if anything had worked, amid sharp warnings that the situation was deteriorating.



U.S. and Japanese officials gave differing assessments of what was happening at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, 140 miles (220 kilometers) north of Tokyo. The top U.S. nuclear regulatory official warned of possible high emissions of radiation while the U.S. ambassador urged Americans within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the plant on the tsunami-savaged northeastern coast to leave the area or at least remain indoors.



Tokyo Electric Power Co., which owns the plant, said it believed workers were making headway in staving off a catastrophe both with the spraying and, especially, with efforts to complete an emergency power line to restart the plant's own electric cooling systems.

Full story: http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/17/japan-contines-efforts-to-cool-overheated-nuclear-complex/