[11:05 p.m. ET Wednesday, 12:05 p.m. Thursday in Tokyo] Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said that he and Prime Minister Naoto Kan decided early Thursday to commence the operation to drop water over the Fukushima Daiichi plant's No. 3 nuclear reactor. They also decided to send water-cannon trucks to the scene to spray water at the No. 3 reactor from the ground.
The plan to drop water from above had been aborted Wednesday, due to concerns about high radiation levels.
"We could not delay the mission any further, therefore we decided to execute it," Kitazawa told reporters.
