In the confusion following the earthquake and tsunami that damaged the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear complex last March, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it was standing by to help.
But a trove of emails posted on the NRC's website shows an agency struggling to figure out how to respond and how to deal with the American public while cutting through what one official called "the fog of information" coming out of Japan.
"THIS IS NOT A DRILL," said an email from the NRC operations center early March 11, hours after the quake. "This may get really ugly in the next few days," said one NRC official later in the day after a report that Tokyo Electric Power Co. was venting gas from a containment building.