When Enrico Fermi and his team constructed a nuclear reactor way back in 1942, they were adamant that it was the world’s first of its kind, and that nothing like this could have ever been done before, and celebrated right up until 1972. However, they did not take mother nature into consideration, and when nuclear scientists discovered that the concentration of isotopes from within the ore found at a site in Oklo in Gabon, Africa was not quite as they should have been.
The samples from Oklo were taken to be tested further, and the results concluded that they were missing a significant amount of urnaium-235, which is found in natural uranium deposits. So, where had it gone? Scientists discovered that some billions of years ago the ore had been decomposed during natural nuclear reactions that lasted for thousands of years, self-reacting over and over again.
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Nuclear fission is where the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts, releasing more neutrons. As a result, this releases an enormous amount of energy and causes the neutrons to strike other atoms and split those, releasing more neutrons and continuing the reaction cycle. For the reactor to keep fuelled, it used water as its moderator.
According to scientists, these natural reactions carried on for many of thousands of years, until finally, so much of the uranium-235 had been split that there was not enough left to refuel the reaction cycle and the reactor shut down. However, there were 17 natural reactor sites found in total near Okli and Okelobondo uranium mines alone, so there could be much more on our doorsteps just waiting to be discovered.
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