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The Workings of an Ancient Nuclear Reactor
- jmatt 18y agoThis is quite the intriguing science mystery. I really enjoyed it. And it ended with a possibility of some pragmatic benefits too: Oklo also demonstrates a way to store some forms of nuclear waste that were once thought to be almost impossible to prevent from contaminating the environment. Since the advent of nuclear power generation, huge amounts of radioactive xenon 135, krypton 85 and other inert gases that nuclear plants generate have been released into the atmosphere. Nature’s fission reactors suggest the possibility of locking those waste products away in aluminum phosphate minerals, which have a unique ability to capture and retain such gases for billions of years. Excellent!
- RobertL 18y agoHaven't read SA for a couple of decades but it looks like this "pretend" science topic rag has really gone downhill. First of all "Oklo" was 100 million years ago, not 2 billion, and the whole story was pretty much "figured out" over 20 years ago. It was just underreported because it didn't fit into the ideology of the time. Natural Uranium, right now, is about .72 percent U-235 with the balance being U-238. U-238 has a much longer half-life than U-235 so over a few 10's of millions of years the ratio changes. 100 million years ago the U-235 content of natural uranium was higher than it is now and that would have made it easier for K-effective to bump up over 1 in a natural environment. Oklo simply shows that nuclear fission is a natural phenomenon. Nuclear power is a truly natural and renewable energy resource that the human race desperately needs to tap into. Those who want to use solar panels and windmills should be free to "chase the dream" but, for my part, give me nuclear power. It's the safest, cleanest, and most cost effective way to generate electrical energy.