Tokyo Electric says they are sending workers into damaged Fukushima reactor no. 1 today for the first time since the March 11 tsunami and ensuing explosion of that plant. The radiation levels in that reactor building are so high that until now, they've only dared to send robots in.

Reactor no. 1 is the one they were trying to cool by flooding the containment vessel. Apparently they can't tell whether the water is getting where they want it to go, and there's no way to find that out without sending humans into the plant. The first workers will install an air scrubber to cut down on the airborne radioactive particles; there will apparently be many more to follow, installing gauges and eventually, supposedly, setting up a heat exchanger and a wastewater treatment system.

Given how farfetched that sounds, one wonders why they are bothering. Are they just trying to look busy? Are they desperate to avoid a much bigger crisis than the one over which they're already presiding?