Back in Japan:

Gov’t eyes use of huge sheet to contain radioactive substances

The government has asked Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, to study the possibility of containing radioactive substances from four damaged reactors by wrapping their entire containment buildings with a huge amount of sheeting, government sources said Sunday.

The proposal calls for building framed structures around the 45-meter-high containment buildings and then wrapping them with the sheeting, the sources said.

If all of the four buildings were wrapped in this manner, it would cost about 80 billion yen and take up to two months, the sources said.

But atomic energy experts are skeptical about the feasibility of the plan, proposed by a general construction firm, saying the step would have only limited effects in blocking the release of radioactive substances into the environment.

Osaka University professor emeritus Keiji Miyazaki said that there is the risk that such sheeting would be torn apart by heat emanating from nuclear reactors. […]

Ritsumeikan University professor emeritus Ikuro Anzai said if sheeting-based containment were technically possible […] added that there is the risk that radiation levels would go up inside the sheeting, thus hampering various restoration work, including the work to spray water onto the reactors.

A source close to the government criticized its latest move, saying, ”Politicians and the TEPCO management adopted the proposal from the major construction company which does not have deep knowledge about nuclear power plants.”

”This step is essentially lip service to give the public a sense of ease by hiding the image of the decrepit nuclear plant,” the source said.

At least this proposal is getting the criticism it deserves.

In Japanese politics, the nation’s construction industry are among the most powerful of the lobbies, especially when it comes to domestic spending.

I’ve also been told, by a friend who works for a small construction company, that many construction companies are the laundry service for the Japanese mob’s money.