Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Ooh, one more! Epistemic status: fun to think about.
In 1956, it was hypothesized that under certain natural conditions, you could get a natural fission reactor if uranium was sufficiently concentrated. The geological conditions required are extremely particular.
In 1972, a uranium enrichment site in France discovered that their uranium samples from one particular mine in west central Africa were showing different isotope ratios than expected (specifically different U235 concentrations than expected). There was an investigation, and it was included that 2 billion years ago, the site of the Oklo mine was a natural nuclear reactor, and that explained the missing U-235.
As far as I can tell, there are no other examples of natural nuclear reactors anywhere on Earth.
The conspiracy theory is "some of the U-235 up and walked away, and the natural fission reactor thing was a cover story".
I don't think it's super likely to be true -- the evidence in the form of xenon isotope ratios and such is pretty convincing as long as it wasn't fabricated wholesale -- but it's still one of the more suspicious things I've seen.
if there was natural reactor 2 billion years ago, when it follows than 4 billions years ago with higher U-235 content there must have been more of them, but very little of that time remains.
More options
Context Copy link
That local governments often start construction projects on toll-free highways and roads and often delay them to divert traffic to tolled roads temporarily. I don't know how the economics of this works out, I just like the idea.
More options
Context Copy link
I'd be shocked if there was only 1 sample from the Oslo mine. This is a super trivial thing to verify, and I would have assumed both the US and IAEA at a minimum would have done so.
I did a brief read through the references in the wikipedia article and found a handful of non-French scientists who've published about Oslo, but I don't see any references to actual samples taken from the mine except the French one.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link