Ground Self-Defense Force choppers dumped water bags, a Tokyo police water cannon unsuccessfully tried to spray water and five enclosed GSDF firetrucks later took on the desperate attempt to cool spent nuclear fuel rods in a storage pool suspected of drying up at the Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant's No. 3 reactor.
Of the effort by two GSDF Chinook choppers to drop 30 tons of water on the pool, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said, "We are still investigating" whether the drop helped fill the pool.
Then shortly after 7 p.m., a Tokyo police truck equipped with an antiriot high-pressure water cannon sprayed the pool but high radiation levels soon forced the truck to retreat. The five GSDF firetrucks then took over the operation until after 8 p.m. as fears mount of a greater radiation leak. It was not immediately clear if the operation succeeded.