Science

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about natural radiation. One of my readers pointed out to me that there was a scientific breakthrough. It is thought that natural fission has taken place in the past on this planet. This seemed to be a crazy thought to me. The reason that I felt this way, was that we have spent billions of dollars to design machinery that could create a fission reaction and billions more to store the spent rods and such, so that we don't get irradiated. How could nature ever duplicate these feats? It turns out that a French physicist named Francis Perrin discovered that nature probably did just that. The actual process is far above my understanding, but I will try and explain it in a simple way.

Apparently you need a radioactive isotope called U-235 in the uranium ore. This particular isotope was necessary to sustain the chain reaction. The other isotopes that are usually found in the uranium ore are U-238 and U-234. All these isotopes in close proximity began to heat up as subatomic particles banged into each other as they were being thrown off. Water running down through the rock played a key role in the reaction. The water helped to slow down the particles and sort of moderate the amount of collisions and when things got to hot, the water turned to steam and stopped slowing the particles. This slowed down the reaction until the steam was turned back into water, as the temperature lowered. Nature had actually built a natural nuclear reactor, but what about the nuclear waste? It seems to have been held in place, deep under the ground.

Gabon
Graphic Source: CIA-Modified To Highlight Gabon

It is believed that this is precisely what happen at sites in Gabon, in Africa. It is thought that there were about 16 sites where this has occurred and that it happened about 2 billion years ago. The best guess is that the natural reactor ran for about a few hundred thousand years. At first scientists were very skeptical of this, but most have now come around to the fact that the evidence seems to indicate that this conclusion is correct. When the area was examined, there was a much lower ratio of U-235 to U-238 isotopes than there should have been. This can be accounted for by the fact of the reaction using up most of that isotope for fuel to keep the chain reaction going. It is felt that there is not enough U-235 in uranium ore today to cause another natural chain reaction.

Saskatchewan, Canada
Graphic Source: CIA-Modified To Highlight Saskatchewan

Huge deposits of uranium do exist today however. One of the biggest undeveloped high grade uranium mines in the world is the Cigar Lake Mine in Canada. It is in a uranium rich basin, known as the Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan, Canada. The very biggest deposit of uranium in the world is in the McArthur River Uranium mine, it is also in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. The McArthur River Mine was discovered in 1988 and only started producing in 1999. It is said that, “As of December 31, 2007, the mine has proven and probable reserves of 766,500 tonnes at an average grade of 20.66% U3O8 (349.1 Million pounds)”. The Cigar Lake Mine was discovered in 1981. It must be remembered that the average world yield from uranium ore is about 1%, yet these two mines produce over 20%.

Now that we know that natural fission can occur and has in the past, there is a chance that it could be occurring in other places in our solar system, or outside it. Think of the potential if we found that these natural reactors exist on Mars for example. We might be able to tap into this power and set up a base. We know that water now exists on Mars and have seen many different minerals on Mars. We can conclude that uranium might also exist there. If the isotopes are in the same ratio as they were on earth we could have natural reactions occurring there. On the other hand, maybe the planet already had these reactions and is in the same situation as the earth today. We are going to have to look for signs of these reactions on other heavenly bodies, now that we know these reactions are possible.

Nuclear Reactor
Graphic Source: US Government

If nuclear fission was occurring on this planet billions of years ago, who is to say that it is not still happening deeper inside the earth? Could it be that the heat that we detect coming from inside the planet is not being created by molten material, but indirectly by a nuclear reaction? Maybe the earth will turn out to just have a cold metal core and not a hot one. If it is hot, it could be made that way by a nuclear reaction. You have to wonder about this kind of thing. It should not be dismissed out of hand. When some people proposed that the earth was hollow and contained a small star inside, they may not have been far off, maybe it is hollow and contains a vast nuclear engine that is somehow sustained by far more uranium than we ever suspected existed.

It could also turn out that if nature has found a way to create a nuclear reaction, maybe cold fusion exists in nature and we just haven't found it yet? Wouldn't that be something, having this right under our feet and not seeing it? Some scientists are fond of saying that we can learn a lot from nature. I bet when they said that they never thought that this would also apply to the field of nuclear physics.