Nature's Nuclear Reactor

HomunQlus

This is absolutely amazing and will blow your mind. Seriously.

Nature’s Nuclear Reactor

By Jessa Forte Netting
February 04, 2005

Nuclear reactions in zone 9 of the Oklo natural fossil fission reactor (above) lasted an estimated 220,000 years.
It took humans until the 20th century to build a nuclear reactor. Mother Nature, on the other hand, built one that turned itself off and on, stored its waste, never threatened a meltdown—and did it 2 billion years ago.

Physicists analyzing a tiny sample of this ancient georeactor—discovered in the African country of Gabon in 1972—have now determined how it worked. Alexander Meshik at Washington University in Saint Louis and his colleagues conclude that river water trickling into uranium-rich bedrock acted like the control rods in a modern reactor, increasing the efficiency of fission and causing the uranium to produce a chain reaction. The reaction released heat that boiled the water. Once all the water was gone, the fission fizzled out, preventing a meltdown. Gradually, more water trickled in and the process started anew.

By analyzing how xenon (a radioactive by-product of the reaction) was trapped in the rock as it periodically cooled, Meshik’s team could measure the timing of this ancient nuclear cycle. For 150 million years the reactor switched on for 30 minutes every couple of hours or so. “What’s amazing is that it was exactly 30 minutes—not 25, not 35,” Meshik says. Grains of a natural compound called alumophosphate had sequestered the xenon waste for eons without leaks. Eventually so much of the original uranium decayed that the reactor shut down for good. The whole process confirms that the laws of nuclear physics worked just the same 2 billion years ago as they do today. Now we just need to match nature’s finesse.

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Source:
http://www.discover.com/web-exclusives-archive/natures-nuclear-reactor0204/

samb

HomunQlus wrote:

This is absolutely amazing and will blow your mind. Seriously.



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Source:
http://www.discover.com/web-exclusives-archive/natures-nuclear-reactor0204/

It goes to show that everything we do is in a sense natural. Many people seem to associate artificail with bad, natural with good.

jesus!nature does everything better than us!

smiles

In a similar vein.

The Workings of an Ancient Nuclear Reactor
Two billion years ago parts of an African uranium deposit spontaneously underwent nuclear fission.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=00078840-5C1A-1359-9B5C83414B7F0119

derry

Proof that the africans 2,000,000 years ago invented the modern world and made the nuclear power first.
Also proof that you need to keep a watch over nuclear waste for 2,000,000 years
So where were the lazy fecks who had the job to guard the nuclear waste

Derry

rgunning

Err.. I don't think there were any Africans around at the time.
and the point of the whole Oklo phenomenon is that the nuclear waste didn't actually stray that far from the reactor, showing that nuclear waste isn't so difficult to store.

derry wrote: »

Proof that the africans 2,000,000 years ago invented the modern world and made the nuclear power first.
Also proof that you need to keep a watch over nuclear waste for 2,000,000 years
So where were the lazy fecks who had the job to guard the nuclear waste

Derry

derry

rgunning wrote: »

Err.. I don't think there were any Africans around at the time.

That s typical French propaganda they cant handle that the Africans were that far advanced so they start mankind at 1,000,000 year and erase the original history

rgunning wrote: »

and the point of the whole Oklo phenomenon is that the nuclear waste didn't actually stray that far from the reactor, showing that nuclear waste isn't so difficult to store.

As above the French sell Nuclear power so now they want to convince you thats it natrual and safe.So is the nuclear power in the SUN it safe at ~90,000,000 miles away but try it in your country and you wont find 6,000,000 degrees in your face so safe

Derry