3 ms·
Not a fission reactor. Just a radiothermal generator. It's not critical. This article doesn't say anything surprising; the news is that these guys calculated h
by foobarbecue 4y ago
Not a fission reactor. Just a radiothermal generator. It's not critical.
This article doesn't say anything surprising; the news is that these guys calculated how much heat is produced.
- foobarbecue 4y agoOk I just read a bit more and apparently there are some fringe geophysicists who think it really is more like a reactor. I didn't know that.
- defrost 4y agoThere were actual "natural" fission reactors in the crust in central Africa some time ago[1] .. the broader region provided the bulk of the ore for the Cold War production of weapons grade ore. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklo_Mine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklo_Mine
- pencilguin 4y agoNature used up the best ore billions of years ago. We did get radiation-resistant microbes in exchange.
- defrost 4y agoThe news here, specifically, is that: > Enter Quaise, which “is developing technology to blast rock with microwaves to potentially drill the deepest holes on Earth. ie. there's a new, untried at extremes, bore drilling technique. The calculation of heat production from earths core isn't new here, and nor, sadly, is any demonstration of a bore hole at a 10 mile depth. They do acknowledge the deepest convential borehole so far was 7.6 mile (at some considerable effort at no small expense).
- julian_sark 4y agoMostly. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reac...