#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: SDF Starts Hosing Reactor No.4

Yomiuri Shinbun (in Japanese; 8:39AM JST 3/20/2011):

Japan's Self Defense Force started dousing the Reactor No.4 for the first time from their fire engines on the ground, at 8:20 AM.

The SDF and Tokyo Metropolitan Fire Department have doused the Reactor No.3 to replenish water in the Spent Fuel Pool. This is the first time to try to do the same for the Reactor No.4.

The SDF plans to use 10 high-power fire engines to douse the Reactor with 60 to 80 tons of water.

The Reactor No.4 is the one that the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said there is no water in the Spent Fuel Pool.

Even though the Japanese government has finally accepted the offer from the US military of 4 unmanned vehicles that can pump water 24 hours without endangering the personnel, they continue the farce of putting the Self Defense Force in front of the news media. The operation for the Reactor No.4 will be the same as the one they did for the Reactor No.3: pretty lame.

I'm pretty confident that the US vehicles will be paraded, just for the show, after the radiation is superbly controlled by the SDF and Japanese fire department and Japanese police.

The show must go on at all cost.

Additional info from Asahi Shinbun (in Japanese; 9:16AM JST 3/20/2011):

There will be also one of the engines offered from the US military, which will be operated by TEPCO.

Around noon, the SDF's CH47 helicopter is scheduled to fly over the plant to measure the temperatures [of the Reactors].

Never mind that the US military has been providing the more detailed reconnaissance data of the plant from the drones to the Japanese government.

As I've already said, the show must go on.

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