Natural nuclear reactor

[Blue Ghost]

Hank Green gives the lowdown on a naturally occurring nuclear reactor. Referees and players, take note;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS53AA_WaUk

 

[Timerover51]

Hank Green gives the lowdown on a naturally occurring nuclear reactor. Referees and players, take note;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS53AA_WaUk

That showed up in Scientific American back in the 1970's. Quite an interesting occurrence. It would require a young planet though, to get a high enough concentration of U-235 to work, or a very odd formation rate for Uranium.

You could also get that on a planet with a high concentration of deuterium in the water, as natural uranium can be effectively moderated by heavy water. It does make for some interesting possibilities. Radioactive geysers anyone?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-nuclear-reactor/

 

[WistfulD]

That showed up in Scientific American back in the 1970's. Quite an interesting occurrence. It would require a young planet though, to get a high enough concentration of U-235 to work, or a very odd formation rate for Uranium.

Thanks for the link, I can't watch U-tube at work. The U-235 concentration is related to how old the solar system is (or more specifically when the Uranium was forged in the belly of a star). Could the concentration also be related to the specific qualities of the star it was forged in? Bigger stars create more post-iron elements, is isotope ratio also a function of the star?

 

[Timerover51]

That showed up in Scientific American back in the 1970's. Quite an interesting occurrence. It would require a young planet though, to get a high enough concentration of U-235 to work, or a very odd formation rate for Uranium.

You could also get that on a planet with a high concentration of deuterium in the water, as natural uranium can be effectively moderated by heavy water. It does make for some interesting possibilities. Radioactive geysers anyone?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-nuclear-reactor/

Interesting, the link is still working, for those who wish to look it up. The other thing would be whether or not in other star systems, the concentration of U-235 would be significantly different. My guess would be it would be, but that is just a guess.

 

[Condottiere]

You need to be able to exploit that energy production.

Or it might be an ingredient to sped up evolution.