^^ you need to check the date on that first image.
ive been watching cnn and that nhk pretty heavily all week at work here.
like op said, using cups of water to put out a bonfire.
2 days ago, fuel rods at reactor 2 were 30% damaged, and fuel rods at reactor 1 was 70% damaged. thats pretty significant. Personally, i feel like theyre downplaying the situation to prevent panic. Why do you think china demanded full disclosure from the plant officials the other day. there was a blog posted on the net somewhere earlier this week from a plant employee. they made them take their blog down. i feel like those fucks are hiding shit.
as of this morning, they(japan) upped the situation from a level 4 to a level 5 on the scale of 1-7. 5 was three mile island, and 7 was chernobyl. France already has their assessment at a level 6. ive seen no reports of anything improving. tokyo electric power said they hoped to have power lines ran to the plant by friday at the earliest, but that doesnt account for the time its going to take to get shit repaired/replaced to get pumps and shit restored.. those plants are pretty fucked up.
http://www.digitalglobe.com/digitalglobe2/downloads/featured_images/japan_earthquaketsu_fukushima_daiichi_march14_2011_dg.jpg