More from Peter Boulding:

I haven't even managed to learn whether they've finally installed their plastic, steel-framed tent around the remains of reactor building #1 (the only images on the web are computerised artists' impressions), although I did find a piece about ten days ago to the effect that TEPCO are starting work on one for reactor building #3... in a rush, because the typhoon season has begun. (What about reactor building #4?)

The Mainichi Daily News now says erection of the cover for reactor building #1 will start today, and should be completed by the end of September. "Once the installation is completed at the reactor", they add, "Tokyo Electric will consider installing similar coverings for the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors."

Other updates:

* The Japanese government is lifting its non-mandatory evacuation advice regarding *some* areas outside the 20-kilometre limit.

* The cooling water decontamination/recycling system is still suffering too much downtime, with pumps breaking down and backup pumps failing to start. The government regulator, itself under fire (see below), is attempting to get heavy with TEPCO about this.

* Prime Minister Naoto Kan may step down by the end of this month--if he manages to get two bills passed through parliament. One concerns deficit-funding bonds needed to keep TEPCO and others afloat; the other mandates subsidies for renewable energy projects. It won't be that easy to get either passed, however: Kan's party relies fairly heavily on donations from power company labour unions, the opposition on donations from the said companies.

* Japan has a sophisticated radiation forecasting system that correctly predicted the path of the radiation fallout from planned venting that took place early in the crisis. It now emerges that hundreds of evacuees--mostly children--were given "shelter" in an elementary school ten kilometres from Fukushima Daiichi that was according to the system, right in the path of that fallout. The mayor of the relevant town only learned of the cock-up from watching TV; a day later he organised buses to take these evacuees to another part of the town--which the system correctly predicted was also in the path of the fallout. Why? Because the Nuclear regulator sat on the system's predictions in order to avoid (a) costly evacuations and (b) embarrassing local and central government officials and power company executives. The Prime Minister appears to have been unaware of the system's existence.

* Hearings have started regarding the scandal in which the regulator tried, over some years, to shift public opinion in favour of nuclear power by salting public symposiums with power company employees.

* TEPCO have reported a 7.4 billion USD loss for the quarter April-June.

German gas and electricity supplier E.ON has posted a 2.13 billion USD loss for the quarter and is cutting 11,000 jobs because of the German government's Fukushima-related decision to shut down nuclear plants early.

* Falling beef prices cause by the discovery of contaminated meat has caused Japanese beef giant Agura Bokujo to go bust with debts of 62 billion yen.

* No inshore fishing can be done in Fukushima prefecture. Half of the samples of fish checked by Greenpeace exceeded the Japanese government-set limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram.

* How the nuclear industry is reacting to the public's increasing distrust of the people who make their living from--or plan to make billions out of--nuclear power: here's the mad-eyed John Hutton (ennobled by Tony Blair, and now a UK nuclear industry mouthpiece) explaining how we've got no choice: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/9559767.stm. The relevant BBC News 24 slot is called "Hard Talk". This clip gives you a fair example of just how probing and fearless BBC interviewers are likely to be these days...

* Here, for contrast, is the *totally* impartial Russia Today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WwMISWTy9U

* And last but not least: Fukushima is killing American babies, says Fox News: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3oMEqU1oAY