Broke in America: The Housing Meltdown Continues

03/30/11 Los Angeles, California – She likes the free, fresh wind in her hair
Life without care
She’s broke, and it’s “oke”
Hates California, it’s cold and it’s damp
That’s why the lady is a tramp

Well, it’s not cold and it’s not damp. Instead, LA is warm and sunny, with springtime flowers popping out all over.

And yesterday, the Dow rose 81 points, while the price of gold slipped a little.

So what else is new?

We never thought we liked LA. But we may change our mind. Daughter Maria took us around yesterday. We wandered around Venice Beach and then through Hollywood. The town is much nicer than we remembered it. Many of the houses, shops and apartment buildings are getting a makeover. They remind us of the Soho area of Buenos Aires – young, hip, and lively.

“This isn’t like the rest of America,” Maria explained. “Just drive an hour to the East and you’ll see what we mean. That’s the real America. Here, the town is full of immigrants…pretty girls who want to hit it big in Hollywood…Russians, French, English…all sorts of girls. And there are a lot of men…you know, men who take a little too much care of themselves. You see them at parties. They also have a project. They always have contacts. They always have a cell phone and spend a lot of time talking. But nothing ever happens.

“But I love LA. I don’t know if I could live anywhere else.”

There are a lot of girls with the fresh wind in their hair here…

And a lot of people who are broke. Whether it is “oke” or not…we don’t know.

But here’s the latest on America’s housing meltdown:

AP – Damage from the housing bust is spreading to areas once thought to be immune.

In at least 14 major US metro areas, prices have fallen to 2003 levels – when the housing bubble was just starting to inflate. Prices will likely drop further this year, making many people reluctant to buy or sell. That would push down sales and prices more.

The depressed housing industry is slowing an economy that has shown strength elsewhere. And it’s starting to hurt those who bought years before the housing boom began. In some cities, people who have paid their mortgages for a decade have little or no home equity.

Prices have tumbled in familiar troubled spots, such as Las Vegas, Cleveland and Detroit. But they’re also at or near 10-year lows in Denver, Atlanta, Chicago and Minneapolis – cities that weren’t as swept up in the housing boom and bust.

“It’s been tough on the lower class but it’s filtering up,” said Paul Dales, senior US economist with Capital Economics. “It may be only a matter of time before it hits the wealthy.”

Just about the only major market weathering the second wave of the housing downturn is Washington. Home prices there have risen 11 percent in the past two years.

A Daily Reckoning note: the zombies are doing just fine, thank you. It’s the rest of the nation that suffers. Money flows from the people who earn it to the protected financial sector…and to the feds themselves. Is it any wonder that profits in finance are back to their 2007 level? Or that, overall, debt is now even higher? Or that people in the zombie capital are actually richer today (thanks to automatic wage hikes in the federal government, plus property value increases)?

But people in LA? In Chicago? In Dubuque or Baton Rouge?

They’re broke.

Bill Bonner
for The Daily Reckoning

Since founding Agora Inc. in 1979, Bill Bonner has found success and garnered camaraderie in numerous communities and industries. A man of many talents, his entrepreneurial savvy, unique writings, philanthropic undertakings, and preservationist activities have all been recognized and awarded by some of America's most respected authorities. Along with Addison Wiggin, his friend and colleague, Bill has written two New York Times best-selling books, Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt. Both works have been critically acclaimed internationally. With political journalist Lila Rajiva, he wrote his third New York Times best-selling book, Mobs, Messiahs and Markets, which offers concrete advice on how to avoid the public spectacle of modern finance. Since 1999, Bill has been a daily contributor and the driving force behind The Daily Reckoning . 

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Fukushima Japan, Meltdown Update

Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associate Inc., has provided several video-opinion updates regarding the Fukushima-Japan nuclear power plant disaster. Given his credentials (listed below), his practical and straight-forward demeanor, I find it beneficial to hear what he has to say. So much so that I’m writing this short post regarding his most recent update that he posted today.

The main stream media has not dedicated much of its time to covering this disaster as it continues to unfold, which is probably one of the reasons why I feel more compelled to stay on the general topic given that this site is about ‘modern survival’. This situation certainly presents a big time threat to survival there in Japan, while so far it has not ‘apparently’ escalated to the point of other nations. Even if it never goes beyond Japan’s borders in a big way, we can all learn valuable lessons from what has happened, and what may be still to come.

None of this is fear mongering whatsoever. Instead it is highlighting, examining, and commenting on a real-time disaster, it’s effects on the local region, and the possible effects outside of the region in the time to come. Becoming educated about a given disaster scenario will only empower you to take better control of yourself and your actions, without entirely relying on outside organizations for information (e.g. government, corporation spokespeople, main-stream-media, etc..).

The following are the notes that I wrote down while watching Arnie’s latest video:

Plutonium has been found at 5 different locations on site (all 5 soil samples), which implies that no doubt there will be more discovered – probably outside the nuclear plant location.

Plutonium detection is not detected or picked up with traditional Geiger counters.

Belief that plutonium coming from fuel pool no. 4, but can’t rule out the other reactors.

Highly radioactive water found outside in ‘trenches’, means the container building isn’t ‘containing’.

Radioactivity in the water is over 100 Rem/h (anyone standing near it for 3 or 4 hours receives a lethal dose of radiation).

Believes the trench water is leaking into the ocean.

Damage inside of the core is enormous (fuel rods used for 4 years – built up ‘decay heat’, exposed without cooling for days).

70 – 80 percent of core is probably damaged.

Molten slag drops to the bottom of the reactor, damaging seals and gradually eating its way through the reactor.

Quote: “Frankly, I don’t see how it’s going to be stopped in the short term.”

About:
Arnie Gundersen is an energy adviser with 39-years of nuclear power engineering experience. A former nuclear industry senior vice president, he earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in nuclear engineering, holds a nuclear safety patent, and was a licensed reactor operator. During his nuclear industry career, Arnie managed and coordinated projects at 70-nuclear power plants around the country.

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Could a Japanese U.S. Debt Selloff Trigger a Dollar Meltdown?

With the disaster in Japan being far from over, the question of how Japan will finance their reconstruction efforts has, for the most part, stayed out of focus. According to reports, the damage is estimated in excess of $300 billion, nearly four times higher than hurricane Katrina. This number will likely rise the longer the nuclear crisis remains unresolved. Karl Denninger of Market Ticker says there are several problems facing the Japanese:

(Video interview of Denninger on Fox Business follows excerpts and commentary)

The Tsunami did a tremendous amount of damage to the landscape and once they get that cleaned up they’re going to have to rebuild. And then you’ve got about 8 gigawatts of electrical generation that’s been taken offline and there’s no hope of restoring that anytime in the near future.

So, the capital flows that have gone into Japan from exports are going to turn into capital flows going the other direction because Japan has to buy the materials that it needs in order to rebuild its society.

The main issue in terms of rebuilding is one of funding. While the US may send foreign aid to help get Japan back on its feet, such measures are not very popular due to our already troubled debt levels and spending problems, so any support we provide will be limited. Japan can’t depend on international aid of any significance either, because, well, no one else gives like the US. Private donations may help people on the ground with food, clothing and shelter, but those are a drop in the bucket compared to what is necessary.

Considering that Japan is the third largest economy in the world, they will be left to come up with the money themselves.

Karl Denninger says that how Japan will come up with the money is “an open question.”

How they’re going to manage to do that without either printing more money, which at some point will cause problems over there, or selling some of their Treasuries is an open question.

Japan owns about 20% of all US debt. It’s safe to say that Japan’s regular purchases of US Treasuries are about to come to a screeching halt, or at least, be reduced significantly. This fact alone means someone is going to need to step in to buy up that excess debt. We can all guess, fairly accurately, who will end up with those new issues.

But even if the Federal Reserve were to buy up the new debt that Japan won’t, there is the question of how Japan is going to fund the $300 billion plus in recovery efforts. And given that there is no end in sight, we may be talking about double that amount – no one really knows.

So, the question is, will Japan need to sell off some of its US debt in order to pay for recovery and reconstruction efforts? And if so, could that be the black swan that could trigger the domino effect that will lead to a US debt sell off, and ultimately, a currency collapse? Until a month ago this was nowhere on the radar. Now, we have every reason to be concerned about this possible black swan event. Karl Denninger weighs in:

The obvious thing to do is to sell some of those holdings. The danger for the United States is not tomorrow, it’s a few months out. Right now, they’re still trying to clean up the mess. But once they actually start actively rebuilding they’re going to have to have a way to finance this.

And that’s where the danger comes from, because if Japan was to start unloading Treasuries, it would be reasonable to assume that the Chinese, who hold an even larger amount, would look at that activity and say ‘well, if we don’t sell now we lose even more. Maybe we want to be selling some ourselves.’ And, that puts quite an interesting squeeze into our budget picture for the United States.

In January, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner confirmed that we are literally on the brink of a catastrophic debt collapse resulting from a need for money and raising of our debt ceiling. So, it is clear that we’re already in serious trouble as it is. If Japan were to stop buying our treasuries and actually start selling their existing US debt holdings, it could potentially accelerate the already destructive path on which we find ourselves.

As we’ve suggested previously, all it will take is for buyers and holders of US debt to say ‘no more’ and the jig is up. Mainly, we’re talking about China, and if they pull the plug on all of the credit they have thus far extended, then we could literally be talking ‘lights out’.

This may be a low probability event, but so was an earthquake driven Tsunami wiping out the generators that powered the fuel rod cooling stations in Fukuskima.

Watch Karl Denninger and Neil Cavuto:

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Japan Nuclear Meltdown basics

Truth Frequency Radio Special Broadcast about Japan Nuclear Disaster , An 8.9 earthquake rocked Japan and was followed by a massive tsunami.Fukushima nuclear powerplant. Radiation levels there are said to have increased rapidly. The plant has been facing a meltdown after the 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit the country on Friday.In 2012 the Mayan calendar ends, in what some say is their prediction of

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Japan nuclear meltdown could be another Chernobyl

Turi Predictions: guest, seer Louis Turi talked about the crisis in Japan, and its connection to the astrological 'Tail of the Dragon".Workers at the Fukushima nuclear complex are trying to restore power and prevent the worst case scenario ,Japanese engineers work to prevent a meltdown at a stricken nuclear plant as rescuers try to help millions left without food, water or heating by a

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What Does “Nuclear Meltdown” Mean?

There has been a lot of confusion over the term “Nuclear Meltdown” as it has been applied to the two reactors that are in apparent meltdown in Japan.

It is important to understand that the Nuclear Reactors in Japan are different from the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in Russia that did not have a solid stainless steel vessel covering the reactor. At Chernobyl, only a concrete containment building covered the entire structure of the reactor. When the Hydrogen gas built up and exploded, it destroyed the only containment structure that Chernobyl had to keep nuclear material from being dispersed into the atmosphere and surrounding area.

At all of the Nuclear Facilities in Japan, there is within the concrete containment building, a secondary protective device that is over the reactor core. This vessel is made from solid stainless steel, over 6 inches thick. It is within this vessel that the current meltdown of the fuel rods containing Uranium and Plutonium beads, are occurring.

What we have seen in the two explosions of the containment buildings at the Fukushima Power Station in Japan are only the outer structure, not the inner vessel.

Even though there are active Nuclear Meltdowns happening in two of the reactors, they are still being contained within the secondary inner vessel of solid stainless steel. As long as cool sea water is being pumped into these inner vessels, experts may be able to keep the nuclear meltdown contained within the inner structure.

Should the levels within the inner vessel reach a much higher temperature, an all-out meltdown would occur that would destroy the inner vessel and explode all the nuclear materials within the inner vessel, out into the atmosphere and surrounding area.

The reason that the two reactors are classified currently as only being in a “Partial Meltdown” is that only the outer concrete containment building has been destroyed. These outer structures were destroyed when the alloy that lines the fuel rods containing Uranium and Plutonium reached a critical temperature of about 4,000 degrees and began to melt. This is where the term “Melt Down” comes from. In the process of the Zirconium lined fuel cells melting, as they come in contact with the cool sea water that has been pumped into the reactor, the steam that is produced is made up of Hydrogen gas. Of course, Hydrogen gas is extremely combustible and there are many ignition sources within the reactor.

As this Hydrogen gas built up in the outer concrete containment structure, it was ignited and blew apart the outer concrete building, not the inner solid steel vessel.

A meltdown of the nuclear fuel rods within the inner vessel has already taken place and this cannot be reversed. The only remedy to stop a full scale meltdown that will destroy the inner vessel, it to continue to cool the reactor with sea water.

Rob Robinson

This entry was posted on Monday, March 14th, 2011 at 10:56 am and is filed under Nuclear Meltdown, Rob Robinson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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JAPAN NUCLEAR ALERT - WHAT IS A MELTDOWN

With all the talk of nuclear meltdowns, this is a good explanation of what that actually means. Lets just hope it doesnt come to this.

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Nuclear Meltdown and the Book of Revelation

Revelation 8:10 Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.

With reports coming in of an imminent Nuclear Meltdown at the Fukushima power station in Japan, question arise as to what this event means in relation to Bible Prophecy.

The Book of Revelation speaks extensively on the subject of massive natural disasters occurring around the earth simultaneously. Chapter 8 of Revelation begins with the opening of the seventh seal that began the seven-year Tribulation in Revelation chapter 6. As the seventh seal is opened, there is a pause in heaven with complete silence for about half an hour.

Revelation 8:1-2 When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.  And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.

Back in chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation, we see that the church is already present with Jesus in heaven singing the song of redemption that only the church can sing:

Revelation 5:9-10 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”

The key to understanding that this is Jesus’ church, is found in what these in heaven are singing: “You… have redeemed us to God by your blood…”

Only mortal human beings who lived on the earth can sing of Jesus’ blood redeeming them from sin and death. Angels cannot sing this song, no other creature in heaven can sing this song.

As the church is present in heaven during the opening of the seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bowls, they have the opportunity to see what is happening and respond:

Revelation 8:3 Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

The biblical term for “Saints” are those who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross. Here we see that the saints who are in heaven, offer their prayers upon the golden altar in heaven, apparently in response to the sounding of the first trumpet of Revelation 8:7

Revelation 8:4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.

The golden censer that was filled with the prayers of those redeemed human beings in heaven, is now filled with fire from the altar before the throne of God and thrown to the earth.

Revelation 8:5-6 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake. So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

As the golden censer is thrown to the earth, hail, and fire are mingled with blood and scattered over the earth. The effect of this judgment is that a third of the trees and all the green grass of the earth are burned up:

Revelation 8:7 The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.

What event could cause a third of the trees to burn and all of the grass of the earth to be scorched?

One of the possible causes would be contact with earth by an asteroid. As this object enters the earth’s atmosphere and strikes earth, it could cause massive heat to be thrown off from the blast. This heat could burn up large portions of the forests of earth and scorch the grass of the entire earth.

The possibility of this being a strike of the earth by an asteroid is seen in the next verse:

Revelation 8:8 Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.

This second object does not hit the land, but strikes the sea. John being a first century man has never seen or heard of an asteroid. His description is that the object that falls to the earth looks to him like a “Great Mountain Burning With Fire”.

The effects of this second object striking earth is that there is a massive death of the sea creatures who fill the ocean with their blood. A secondary effect is that all those who are in ships where the object strikes the earth, also perish.

Revelation 8:9 And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

Object One: Contact with land, trees and grass burned.

Object Two: Contact with the sea, death of sea life and those in ships.

Object Three: Contact with fresh water on land:

Revelation 8:10 Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.

At this point a description is given of what this third object does to the fresh waters that it comes into contact with:

Revelation 8:11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.

The term “Wormwood” is an old testament term for “Bitterness”

Deuteronomy 29:18 so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood…

Jeremiah 23:15 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; ‘Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, And make them drink the water of gall’ “

The term “Wormwood” is connected with judgment from God. It is not a mistake that the Holy Spirit chose this term here in describing this third objects contact with the fresh water supply of the earth.

What intrigues me at this point is that the term “Wormwood” has also been used in describing nuclear events on the earth.

The Russian word for “Wormwood” is “Chernobyl”

The worst nuclear reactor meltdown tragedy in history happened at the Chernobyl Nuclear Facility on April 26, 1986 at 1:23 am in the Ukraine, Russia. Reactor four of the facility suffered a catastrophic increase in power that led to an explosion of the core and nuclear meltdown of the reactor. The explosion dispersed large quantities of nuclear material into the earth’s atmosphere and turned the fresh water supplies for hundreds of miles around Chernobyl “Bitter” or Poisonous and undrinkable.

Isn’t it interesting that the term “Wormwood ” in the Book of Revelation is used to describe an event of the last days that has a long Biblical history of meaning “Judgement”.

Of course it is not possible to know the mind of God concerning the Japanese people, nor what the massive earthquake and ensuing Tsunami mean in the plan of God. It is for certain however, that it is the intention of the Lord that when we see an event like what happened in Japan, that it causes us to turn our own thoughts to that of reflection.

Where am I personally with God right now? Have I done what He requires for the forgiveness of my sins? Do I know for certain that I have eternal life?

These are questions that every person must answer about themselves during their life, and before they pass from this earth into eternity.

There is a second interest in seeing the nuclear meltdown of the reactors in Japan as a parallel with the Chernobyl accident in Russia in 1986:

In Bible Prophecy, there is often an earlier warning or fulfillment of a later event.

I believe that the massive 9.0 earthquake in Japan and devastating Tsunami that followed, with the now apparent nuclear meltdown of Japan’s first Nuclear Reactor, are an advanced warning by God. We are living in the last days, we are about to see the return of Jesus for His church, the seven-year Tribulation is about to begin.

With the start of the seven-year Tribulation, there will be objects falling from the heavens, and nuclear events happening all over the earth. These future nuclear events will be “Wormwood” and “Bitterness” to all those who dwell on the earth during that time.

The rest of Revelation chapter 8 describes the results of Asteroidal and/or nuclear events that will happen as the seven trumpets are sounded by the seven angels:

Revelation 8:12 Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.

Revelation 8:13 And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”

Rob Robinson

This entry was posted on Monday, March 14th, 2011 at 10:13 am and is filed under Asteroids and Meteors, Earthquakes, Fulfilled Prophecy, Natural Dissasters, Rob Robinson, Signs In the Heavens, The Book of Revelation, The Tribulation, Tsunami's. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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Anatomy of Japan’s Nuclear Plant Meltdown

In the 1979 movie “The China Syndrome” a nuclear reactor experiences a meltdown of it’s core.

In this hypothetical scenario, nuclear material located within a containment building reaches a temperature beyond a manageable capacity. As the temperatures increase, the reactor melts and burns through the foundation of the power plant and into the crust of the earth.

The idea behind the term “China Syndrome” is that once the nuclear material generates heat beyond 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, it could continue to burn itself all the way through the earth, to the other side of the planet, stopping at China.

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan has 6 “Boiling Water” reactors that were completed in the late 70's. In fact, the plant that has reached a critical place of possible meltdown was designed by the United States.

The basic structure of the facility in which the nuclear material is housed, is encased in a core of six-inch thick solid stainless steel containment structure that is pill-shaped. Inside this structure are several hundred fuel rods assemblies. Each Assembly has about one hundred fuel rods constructed of Zirconium Alloy.  These fuel rods have within them, pellets of Uranium that have been enriched from three to five percent of the energy producing U-235 Isotope.

The following description and illustrations depict what happened so far at Fukushima, and what we may expect to happen in the future:

The Fukushima Nuclear power plant in Japan uses a facility called a “Boiling Water Reactor”. (1) Two thirds of the reactor is filled with water. (2) Below the water is a section of Nuclear fuel rods made from Uranium. (3) As the Uranium fuel rods generate heat, water begins to boil and produces steam that is piped into a turbine that is spun. (4) Electricity is generated.

In the case of the Fukushima plant, when the earthquake occurred, ironically electrical power to the plant was disrupted. Even the generator backups failed to operate. (1)  Water flow to the reactor is cutoff. As more water is heated and turned into steam, there is less water in the reactor. When this happens: (2) The water level begins to drop until the nuclear fuel rods are exposed.

As the water level continues to drop, the temperature within the reactor goes from a normal temperature of about 2,000 degrees to 4,000 degrees. At this temperature the fuel rod’s protective coating is destroyed and the rods react with the uranium or plutonium fuel. Nuclear meltdown is imminent.

The first possible scenario (1) is that the massive heat inside the core of the reactor will burn through the bottom of the reactor and sink into the crust of the earth. As the core comes in contact with the water reservoirs beneath the plant, it will release radioactive material. The second scenario (2) is that the reactor vessel will reach such a great pressure that it will explode through the 6-inch solid stainless steel containment casing, causing massive amounts of Radioactive material to escape into the atmosphere.

As you can see, the crisis began because of a decrease in the water supplied to the plant. This was due to the electricity being cut off by the massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake. Even the Generator backup system failed. Ironically, the power plant that produces electricity, cannot itself survive unless electricity is supplied to it.

As soon as the earthquake occurred, the Fukushima reactors went into automatic shutdown. When shutdown begins, specially constructed neutron absorbing fuel rods called “Control Rods” are inserted in between the uranium fuel rod assemblies, stopping the nuclear reaction that causes heat.

The problem with the Fukushima plant is that although the nuclear reaction was halted, the nuclear fuel that was already burning, creates completely new products that themselves generate a tremendous amount of heat by radioactive decay. There is no way to stop this heat from being generated except by the introduction of cool sea water.

When the sea water cannot reach the nuclear containment structure, the ensuing scenario of Fukushima takes place.

Seeking to release some of the pressure within the containment structure, the plant operators released into the atmosphere, the Hydrogen gas that had been built up inside. The cause of this buildup of pressure is the Zirconium alloy in the fuel rod assemblies. The Zirconium that lines the fuel rod assemblies, has most likely melted due to the massive increase in temperature inside the plant. When Zirconium reaches about 4,000 degrees and comes in contact with water, it created Hydrogen gas that is highly combustible.

The explosion and complete destruction of the concrete retainment building at Fukushima was due to the buildup of this highly volatile Hydrogen gas being ignited.

At this point we know that the Zirconium lined fuel cells have melted. The Uranium and Plutonium pellets inside the fuel cells have fallen out into the floor of the pressure vessel. The next stage is a complete meltdown of the core

If enough of these Uranium and Plutonium pellets are released inside the reactor, the plant will reach “Critical Mass” and begin producing uncontrolled heat that would lead to Nuclear Meltdown.

At this moment, the plant operators are filling the structure with Boronic Acid that has the effect of neutralizing the neutrons produced by the Uranium and Plutonium pellets. This could slow the nuclear reaction of the facility and reduce the temperature. Many experts do not believe that this is possible now, considering the advanced stage of the nuclear process.

One of the techniques that is being deployed in the two reactors at the Fukushima Nuclear station is to pump cool sea water into the reactor core. The normal coolant used to maintain the proper temperature inside the reactor is not salt water. The implementation of sea water means that the owners of the plant have basically decided that the plant is beyond commercial redemption. Once sea water is pumped into the reactor, it virtually renders the nuclear core useless to ever again produce power. The good news is that the immediate use of cool sea water seems to have saved the nuclear core from completing the meltdown process.

If the pumping of sea water into the reactor does not succeed, there is no way to turn off the process that has already begun at the plant. If the heat continues to build up, it will be impossible to stop the tragic effects. Unless the material from inside the plant can be removed, there is no hope of stopping the current process and prevent an unimaginable Nuclear accident.

Rob Robinson

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Full Core Meltdown In Japan Will Send Radiation Over United States

Full Core Meltdown In Japan Will Send Radiation Over United States "Out of the cities! We have 30hours to 7 days left before the nuclear fallout? reaches the US. Out of the cities! Out of the cities!" cause more quakes like this one are due to happen according to several sources and prophecies ...

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JAPAN REACTOR - COUNTDOWN TO MELTDOWN !

Explosion Japan Nuclear Reactor Fukushima Global Disaster The Japanese reactor accident at the Fukushima Daiichi I plant is already the second worst nuclear power plant accident, second only to Chernobyl. Physicist Michio Kaku calls it a Chernobyl in the making . -Winds will blow possible Japan radiation to Pacific: agency , The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said Saturday

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Nuclear Expert: "Fukushima Has 24 Hours To Avoid A Core Meltdown Scenario"

Asked how long Japanese scientists have to correct the problem to avoid a core meltdown, Hibbs tells Newsmax that it depends on system design, adding, “it could be a day, plus or minus 10 hours.”

“After a while, with the heat building up in there, and lack of coolant, you’re going to see damage in your fuel, the cladding, the metal container around the nuclear material, begins to buckle or balloon or break, and after a little while you’ll get a situation where the fuel falls apart, melts, and falls into the core, and then you’ve got a classical core melt accident like you had in Three Mile Island that you had in the United States in '79.”

Hibbs spoke with Japanese government officials who told him the force of the tsunami was so severe that the water may have flooded the reactors,  power generators, and cooling mechanisms, disabling the equipment. "Which means they have to resort to basically a military-type exercise, to rush in to the devastated site equipment that they can quickly hook up to the reactor to get power in there and start this emergency equipment, to get cooling water into that core and prevent that fuel from overheating.

“And if they can’t do that,” he told Newsmax, “then you’re going to have this meltdown.”

They have 24 hours or so to avoid a core meltdown, he says. But if one occurs, two scenarios could follow: The good outcome would mirror what happened at Three Mile Island, while the bad one could involve what he called a “Chernobyl scenario, where the damage to the reactor was such that the integrity of the structures were damaged.

“There was an explosion and other things happened in there, that opened up the reactor so the inventory of radioactive material . . . went into the atmosphere and generated this deadly plume that we know happened in Chernobyl.

“So that is the ultimate worst-case scenario. Nobody is saying that’s going to happen. Nobody is even saying we’re going to have a core meltdown. But we have a window of time now. We don’t know how much is left — but the Japanese authorities and the government and all the agencies that they can muster are working overtime to get cooling systems on that site powered and working.”

The April 1986 Chernobyl disaster cost an estimated 4,000 lives. More than 330,000 Russians had to be relocated because of contamination.

But Hibbs says, “A lot of worst-case things would have to happen for us to get that far.”

Hibbs said the Japanese right now are fighting the clock to contain the heating.

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Is Reaganomics The Culprit For The Approaching Meltdown Phase 2?

Paul Farrell is out with another rather dismal outlook on the financial system (better known in the vernacular as the feloneous Ponzi scheme), and how while the immediate causes of the crash, and its disastrous aftermath, which benefits only the upper class at the expense of everyone else, are certainly a function of the current and previous administration, one has to look further back to see the flawed foundations on which everything is built. As far back as Reagan, in fact, and his eponymous Reaganomic doctrine according to Farrell. "Was their Reaganomics ideology so rigid, so blinding, they couldn’t (and still cannot) admit they were wrong? Forcing them to lie to America? Cover up the lies? The evidence is clear. Today, a harsh lesson from history, facts and a warning. Listen closely America. It’s already happening again. The collective Reaganomics Brain has gone from crash to cover-up to comeback kid to capitalism-for-the-super-rich in three short years. Now with absolute power over America." Sure enough, Farrell sees the events of 2008/9 as only the first step in the unwind of Reaganomics. Step two is coming, and it will be the final end of not only the Great Moderation experiment started in the early 80s, but, luckily, of that organization at the heart of it all: the Federal Reserve.

America’s boomers don’t have to be rocket scientists to see the workings of the Reaganomics Brain here, how it’s destroying capitalism, democracy and their retirements. Here’s hard evidence of lies and cover-ups in past and future catastrophes:

March 2004. Fed Chairman Greenspan ‘cover-up’ of coming crash

In a Bloomberg Market’s magazine column last year, “Greenspan Cover-up,” Roger Lowenstein, author of “The End of Wall Street,” wrote that in a newly released transcript of a March 2004 meeting Greenspan “argues against disclosing too much to the public lest the Fed ‘lose control of a process that only we fully understand’.” Yes, a cover-up.

Lowenstein was classy, but went ballistic: “This statement ranks as a sign of monumental arrogance. It was Greenspan himself who didn’t understand, much less ‘fully understand,’ that the Fed’s lax mortgage regulation and easy monetary policies were setting America up for a disastrous fall.”

Then the indictment: “Had the Fed publicized such concerns, it might have led to a crackdown and forestalled millions of bad mortgages that would be written over the following 2 1/2 years. Instead, the Fed released minutes with sanitized phrases that had been stripped of alarming language.” Lying by omission, then a cover-up.

Now ask yourself: Was Greenspan so blinded from being inside the myopic echo chamber of the collective Reaganomics Brain for so many years that he, like all other insiders, is forced to lie, then cover up the lies?

Aug 2006. New Treasury secretary in ‘cover-up’ of crash dead ahead

As a postscript to the meltdown, Bloomberg later reported that back in August 2006, a month after Henry Paulson left Goldman Sachs as CEO with a net worth of over $500 million to become the new Treasury secretary, he spoke to the White House staff at Camp David: “Paulson held up over-the-counter derivatives as an example of financial innovation that could, under certain circumstances, blow up in Wall Street’s face and affect the whole economy.”

Reminds us of Warren Buffett’s famous reference to derivatives a “financial weapons of mass destruction.”

Cover-up? Conflict of interest? You bet. America’s Treasury secretary had the facts, but never warned the public. Worse: Instead, happy talk and lies from Paulson, covering up the risks. More than anyone in America, as Goldman’s CEO, Paulson knew about all about the deadly risks in the $500 trillion global derivatives casino, from years building Goldman’s derivatives business.

Worse: Later, when we learned about Goldman’s cover-up in failing to disclose to its own investors its double-dealing with AIG and hedge fund shorting, Paulson’s conflict of interest became clearer. He should have disclosed the risks, yes, had a duty to warn America, but instead refused to share, chose instead to lie and cover up for years.

July 2007. Paulson and Bernanke ‘cover up’ crash after it began

Cover-up? Lie? America’s Treasury Secretary? Yes, a cover-up at the top. One year after becoming Wall Street’s Trojan Horse on the inside of Washington, as the meltdown spread rapidly across Wall Street, this guy with the keys to trillions of the American taxpayer’s retirement money, could have come clean. But instead he was locked into the collective Reaganomics Brain ideology, forced to perpetuate the cover-up.

Yes, Paulson could have told the truth to the American public, to investors and taxpayers, but instead Paulson told Fortune magazine: “This is far and away the strongest global economy I’ve seen in my business lifetime.”

What a whopper. Part of the bigger overall cover-up of the collective Reaganomics Brain ideologues, for during these pre-meltdown years, Paulson, Greenspan and new Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke were regaling America with happy-talk about the subprime mortgage crisis being “contained,” just “regional froth.”

October 2008. Meltdown, then Paulson cons a clueless Congress

America’s Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson was Wall Street’s man on the inside in the fall of 2008 just before the presidential election.

He failed America when the derivative markets collapsed, by conning Congress into protecting his Wall Street buddies with cash, credits and sweetheart deals, even though they were insolvent, virtually bankrupt and had no negotiating power.

Cover-up? Yes, the Reaganomics Brain ideologues were inside, running America for Wall Street’s benefit rather than the American taxpayer. Paulson’s old buddies were all well-protected — to be paid out of retirement monies from America’s boomers.

March 2011. Greenspan leading new Reaganomics resurgence

The Reaganomics Brain that’s ruled America for the past generation is making a swift comeback as the dominant political ideology favored by Wall Street. Last week Bloomberg news put this dangerous resurgence in the spotlight, in effect confirming that the worst of the 2008 meltdown was never completed, historical lessons never learned, and that another crash — like the aftershock of a deadly earthquake — is coming soon to complete the unfinished business.

Here’s why: Bloomberg just reported on a Greenspan’s article in International Finance magazine. He’s not only defending his legacy with renewed allegiance to the ultra-conservative Reaganomics Brain dogma that sustained him for 18 years; Greenspan now blames Obama’s Keynesian policies for the slow recovery. Listen:

Greenspan’s “conclusions fit with his long-held free-market ideology.” He warns “a surge in U.S. government ‘activism,’ including fiscal stimulus, housing subsidies and new regulations, is holding back the economic recovery.” But like Paulson and the rest of this Reaganomics Brain resurgence, there’s no acceptance of his personal past in the meltdown, only blame.

Greenspan sees the problem with the recovery of the American economy as the Democrats failure to embrace free market, deregulation and massive tax cuts, not Greenspan’s failed monetary policies, not Bush’s costly preemptive wars, not Cheney’s belief that “deficits don’t matter.”

Back in an early 2008 quarterly letter to investors, Jeremy Grantham, whose GMO firm manages $100 billion worldwide, said the warning signs of a coming crash were everywhere. But few listened.

As Grantham put it, “the three or four dozen-odd characters screaming about it are always going to be ignored.” Past and future. Why? It’s a brain defect, trapped in our DNA, overriding our rational abilities.

Worse, the new Reaganomics ideologues like Bernanke, the GOP, Tea Party, even Obama, are now marching in lockstep, embracing Reaganomics, squashing all descent, and repeating the same economic blunders as Greenspan and Paulson.

For more information read my report of 22 warnings from major market figures starting in 2000 till the 2008 meltdown. My summary includes warnings by one SEC chairman, two Fed Governors, five leading economists, four billionaires, five money managers overseeing trillions, two leading financial historians, and many more not on the list. 20 reasons a new mega-bubble will pop in 2011.

All their warnings were ignored, lied about and covered up by Greenspan, Paulson and all the other Reaganomics Brain ideologues running Washington and Wall Street the past generation. But soon a powerful revolution will stop the lies and the cover-ups.

Is Farrell being unduly alarmist? Perhaps. Then again, few predicted the tsunami of "liberation" that is sweeping MENA, and soon Asia. The precedent has been set, and it is slowly but surely moving toward the west. With the relentless theft from the middle class by the oligarchy accelerating, and appreciated by everyone, sooner or later there will be nothing left in the great American welfare state to keep the zombified Joe Sixpeasant satiated. At that point all bets will be off.

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