Nano cladding on nuclear rods -- would it have helped in Japan?

Last July, the US Department of Energy made a $900,000 award to a researcher to investigate nano cladding on nuclear rods.

IEEE Spectrum recently issued an article, suggesting that, if the nano cladding had been in place in Japan, perhaps it "might have helped avoid leakage when the rods were temporarily exposed."  You can read the article here: http://bit.ly/h83WWF

Nanotechnology is going to continue to change our lives in ways we can't imagine right now, and it this could be yet another example.