Fukushima, Japan: It is decided to drop water from Chinook helicopters onto reactors 2 and 4 to cool them and prevent a core meltdown. Firefighters then approach with a powerful water cannon, but both attempts fail repeatedly due to the high levels of radioactivity. It is suspected, however, that 70% of the uranium rods in reactor 2 have already melted. Visible clouds of steam (probably radioactive) are rising from several damaged reactors. A Global Hawk drone is used by the U.S. military, at the request of the Japanese government, to capture high-resolution infrared images of the reactors’ interiors.
