Charley... "...that the tons of salt water they'd been spraying on the damaged reactor buildings was draining somewhere as a highly radioactive spill."

Hmmm... unless a pool(s) was filled to overflowing or a core(s) was breeched, that wouldn't be the case. Of course, it could have been the case but I think it's more likely that there's a piping/valve breech. In any case, they had to do what they had to do.