This is the eighth in a series on the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe based on the accounts of people who struggled to contain the crisis in its early stages. Job titles and ages are as of March 2011.


At 9:25 a.m. on March 13, 2011, workers at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant started pumping water into the No. 3 reactor from firetrucks after finding a way to ease the internal pressure more than six hours after it lost its cooling ability and started to overheat.