- action Lacking the ability to pump water through the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant as they usually would, workers were hosing in as much seawater as they could to try to cool the unstable fuel rods.
- outcome This consequently left the plant covered in contaminated salt water, and has made it extremely difficult for those in the plant to work near the reactors, thus impeding the crisis control effort. source
- »And don’t forget about Japan’s other problems: Prime Minister Naoto Kan was pretty unpopular prior to the earthquake and tsunami that decimated the country, and his abilities at crisis management haven’t escaped public criticism. Reuters reports that many Japanese are unhappy with the Prime Minister’s focus on the nuclear crisis, feeling that not enough attention is being paid to other pressing humanitarian tolls caused by the earthquake; the number of dead or missing currently sits at 28,000 people, though obviously that estimate is changing all the time. source