The China Syndrome

Pictures of the Reactor Containment Structure
22 September 2008

In what may be the most stunning direct evidence yet revealed for the occurrence of "The
China Syndrome" under the WTC, press articles have appeared in recent days concerning
the discovery of a "pothole" 40 feet deep in the bedrock under the site of the WTC. It was
uncovered during excavations in the South East quadrant of the site for the new "Freedom
Tower".

In August 2008 it was reported (Daily Mail, 25/08/08) that work was going on 20 hours a
day in the "East Bathtub" to prepare the foundations for the Freedom Tower. Concrete was
being poured down a navy blue funnel from the street into the bathtub. However, in the
panoramic view above there is no sign that construction of foundations for the Freedom
Tower has commenced though perhaps this is out of sight to one side. In fact, reports
commented that this "pothole" was exposed as the overlying topsoil was being removed to
reach the bedrock before construction of the Freedom Tower foundations can commence.

According to the press reports the top of the "steel grey" bedrock is 70 feet below ground
level and the "pothole" extends another 40 feet down. The "explanation" for this pothole is
that it was formed thousands of years ago by the geological processes of Ice Age glaciers.

NY Times, 21/09/08: The senior geologist of the consulting engineers Mueser Rutledge in
charge of the project, Cheryl Moss, is quoted as saying:

"There are areas in local parks that have small vertical potholes exposed but I’m not aware
of anything in the city with a whole, self-contained depression on this scale.”

Shown photographs of the rocks, Sidney Horenstein, a geologist and environmental
educator emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History, said, “You don’t find such
an array of rock types in the few places in the city that the glacial deposits are exposed.”

A closer view of the hole:

If one looks at the left hand wall of the hole, there appears to be a large space between the
central grey, very flat bottom of the hole and the smooth, vertical left hand wall. It appears
that the hole may extend further down in this area.

The central grey area at the bottom of the circular hole looks just like freshly poured
concrete. The colour is identical. Is this not a large concrete plug filling the bottom of the
hole? The metal structure at the bottom edge of the picture looks identical to construction
shuttering or formwork, used to keep poured concrete in place while it sets.

What was the function of the large steel vertical pipe set into the side of the hole? The end
of a smaller steel pipe can be seen just below it.

This photograph is of a construction worker in the hole, showing the morphology of the
side wall.

Is this smooth flowing morphology consistent with resolidification of molten rock?

Remember, we know unequivocally from the aerosol analysis carried out by Prof. Cahill,
that for over 6 weeks the temperatures under the WTC were so high that soil and glass were
being evaporated - boiled away. (The aerosol also indicated the evaporation of stainless
steel). This means the temperature must have been well over 2000 degrees centigrade.
These are the levels of volcanic temperatures encountered during the core meltdown of a
nuclear reactor, directly witnessed at Chernobyl, in which the molten uranium reactor
core, fuelled by the heat of its own radioactive decay, melts its way down through its
stainless steel pressure vessel and then the concrete bioshield. Uranium is extremely
dense and so will fall to the bottom of the molten rock pocket that it creates, further
melting the bedrock and so on. Under the force of gravity the molten mass of uranium will
then continue to melt its way on down through the Earth like a tunneling machine - the
China Syndrome.

This large circular hole in the bedrock is consistent with the space that would have been
required to house the reactor containment structure. The cylindrical stainless steel
pressure vessel holding the core of the reactor would have been of relatively limited
diameter, maybe 5 metres in diameter for a small reactor, 10 meters for a large one. These
pressure vessels are housed in a tightly fitting concrete reactor pit, which prevents the
steel vessel from expanding thermally and rupturing. Situated around the cylindrical
reactor core is a much larger reactor containment structure or bioshield, constructed of
one (or more) concentric very thick concrete cylinders. See the designs proposed in 1972
for Underground NPPs in California.

The photograph below shows the interior of a cylindrical reactor containment structure.
The red arrow is pointing at the reactor pit where the core would be installed.

The following photograph of an above ground nuclear power plant shows the exterior of
the reactor containment building very clearly - the cylindrical domed structure
dominating the complex.

It can be seen that in installing nuclear reactors under the Twin Towers, a large cylindrical
hole would have to be excavated out of the bedrock to house the reactor chamber itself. It
would have been argued that the bedrock itself provided an excellent containment
structure, except for the relatively weak concrete roof of course. Further excavations
would be required for the cooling system and electrical generation system plus all the
other auxiliary services. In the foreground (bottom left hand corner) of the photograph of
the hole in the bedrock, we can see that the metal shuttering divides the round hole from a
further deep excavation that leads away to the bottom left. The left hand wall in this area is
very smooth, vertical and the colour of old concrete - it is clearly not a natural formation.
This area may have formed the access passageway to the reactor hall for personnel and
auxiliary systems.

The following photograph of the Japanese Monju power station shows another similar
cylindrical containment building design.

At Chernobyl, a concrete "sarcophagus" was put in place over the wrecked reactor
building. One would expect a similar procedure to have been effected at the WTC. The best
one could do would be to fill in the hole on top of the core once it had burrowed down
sufficiently for protected workers or robots to access the surface. This would certainly be
one reason to pump in concrete 24 hours a day and there is no evidence of ordinary
building foundations.

The reports also state that thousands of smooth cobbles were found around the hole,
coloured red, purple and green. Rhyolite cobbles formed by igneous processes are usually
red-purple in colour.

The NY Times articles comments: "Along the east side of the pothole, the rock layers run
vertically (my emphasis)— not horizontally. The result, where the surface has been carved
away in a concave form, is an abstract canvas of swirling, concentric rings; not unlike a
gouge in a wall that reveals many layers of old paint."

On P160 of my report, I state that the excavations for the WTC foundations were officially
27 metres deep (88 feet). The surface of the bedrock itself is 70 feet below the surface. The
47 central steel box columns were set into the bedrock during construction in the early
1970s to anchor the towers. Under the WTC plaza there were seven basement layers which
at a reasonable estimate of 10 feet each reached the 70 feet down to the bedrock. This
known construction is not consistent with the presence of a 20,000 year old hole some 40
feet deep and over 80 feet wide in the bedrock itself under the towers or plaza - the
foundations or basement levels would have encountered it and been compromised.

A report by the Union of Concerned Scientists "US Nuclear Plants in the 21st Century: The
Risk of a Lifetime" was published in 2004. The first subject the report covers is The Bathtub
Curve. This is the well known engineering reliability curve which shows high risk of failure
in a system early in its life (infant mortality) and near the end of its life (EOL), with lower
risk during the main operating period.

It is of course also well known that during construction of the WTC, a large excavation
known as The Bathtub was dug to house the basement structures under ground level.