Yeh, they did seem overwhelmed, tremendously.
I was wondering whether, as the cloud began to rise, if hitting it with water sprays and water-bearing aircraft would force the radiation down and help keep it from spreading.
Perhaps someone knowlegeable could weigh in on such a concept. [Of course, cities would have to have units on some kind of standby for them to be effective, as the smoke rises and spreads quickly.]
I know someone who is in the business of knowing about that, Tom, and intend to ask her about just that.
but in my little knowledge of it, I think they use the controlled showers to also collect the drained contaminated water.... even so, there could be something better than the mess they had in that scenario