Ancient nuclear reactors - compelling evidence!

Angilion · 19 Feb 2013 at 19:55

OMG aliens!

No, not really. I just chose the title to be "History Channel" for a moment. I'm not saying it's aliens...because it isn't

It's far more interesting than CT nonsense. It appears, with compelling evidence, that in some very rare circumstances small nuclear reactors can form naturally.

http://www.physicscentral.com/explore/action/reactors-research.cfm

I would have bet good money that wasn't possible, but they have found fission by-products and an explanation of how it could happen.

Shayper · 19 Feb 2013 at 20:03

Pretty awesome

Terry Pratchett covered the subject in a few of the Discworld series, substituting radiation for magic. It's where I first heard about it, Science of Discworld I think it was?

physichull · 19 Feb 2013 at 20:11

Yup, its the only natural reactor (apart from the sun and stars of course!) that we know about.

JonJ678 · 19 Feb 2013 at 20:18

Sure, that's possible. Does our planet core feature fission at a heat source?

[FnG]magnolia · 19 Feb 2013 at 20:26

I'm trying to think of a fishing/fission joke but I've got nothing

Shayper · 19 Feb 2013 at 20:28

[FnG]magnolia;23792863 said:
I'm trying to think of a fishing/fission joke but I've got nothing

Stop fission for humour :mad:

Ricochet J · 19 Feb 2013 at 20:29

[FnG]magnolia;23792863 said:
I'm trying to think of a fishing/fission joke but I've got nothing

Going fission. Nuclear when i'll be back.

Malt_Vinegar · 19 Feb 2013 at 21:37

Ricochet J said:
Going fission. Nuclear when i'll be back.

No reaction from me im afraid...

Jono · 19 Feb 2013 at 21:51

My atomic sides are splitting.

Nikumba · 19 Feb 2013 at 21:57

JonJ678 said:
Sure, that's possible. Does our planet core feature fission at a heat source?

No

Meridian · 19 Feb 2013 at 22:18

Nikumba said:
No

My understanding is that most of the heat at the Earth's core does come from fission, with some also coming from gravitational collapse and residual heat from formation.

mjt · 19 Feb 2013 at 22:23

I hate the history channel. All it ever shows is Nazi ****, alien **** or just generic ****.
Even their pawn stars and storage wars are just Discovery channel knock-offs.

arknor · 19 Feb 2013 at 22:27

I heard they enriched it to weapons grade material and wiped out the dinosaurs in an accident, only a few humans managed to survive hidden in the cave network deep underground that they had inhabited for a millennia living on cave mushroons and fungus until the radioactive wasteland could once again sustain life, these humans emerged from their cave system in africa to find their skin had turned white over the generations and offered little protection from the sun.

some of them remained in africa whilst others dared to explore the new world eventually settling on numerous continents and again repopulating the earth

true story brah

oh wait thats more plausible than the crap they spout on ancient aliens :S what have I done

Even their pawn stars and storage wars are just Discovery channel knock-offs.

american pickers is cool though

although I suspect some of it may be faked like storage wars apparently is

valkynaz · 20 Feb 2013 at 04:49

mjt said:
I hate the history channel. All it ever shows is Nazi ****, alien **** or just generic ****.
Even their pawn stars and storage wars are just Discovery channel knock-offs.

That Nazi "****" is very important knowledge that needs to be aired on a consistent basis. You may not like it but the human race needs to be reminded of it.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"
-George Santayana

No1newts · 20 Feb 2013 at 08:56

arknor said:
I heard they enriched it to weapons grade material and wiped out the dinosaurs in an accident, only a few humans managed to survive hidden in the cave network deep underground that they had inhabited for a millennia living on cave mushroons and fungus until the radioactive wasteland could once again sustain life, these humans emerged from their cave system in africa to find their skin had turned white over the generations and offered little protection from the sun.

some of them remained in africa whilst others dared to explore the new world eventually settling on numerous continents and again repopulating the earth

true story brah

oh wait thats more plausible than the crap they spout on ancient aliens :S what have I done

american pickers is cool though although I suspect some of it may be faked like storage wars apparently is

That's actually a good little conspiracy theorist story you've got there ark

Shayper · 20 Feb 2013 at 09:00

arknor said:
I heard they enriched it to weapons grade material and wiped out the dinosaurs in an accident, only a few humans managed to survive hidden in the cave network deep underground that they had inhabited for a millennia living on cave mushroons and fungus until the radioactive wasteland could once again sustain life, these humans emerged from their cave system in africa to find their skin had turned white over the generations and offered little protection from the sun.

some of them remained in africa whilst others dared to explore the new world eventually settling on numerous continents and again repopulating the earth

true story brah

oh wait thats more plausible than the crap they spout on ancient aliens :S what have I done

american pickers is cool though although I suspect some of it may be faked like storage wars apparently is

Where do I sign up?

quickshot89 · 20 Feb 2013 at 09:06

Meridian said:
My understanding is that most of the heat at the Earth's core does come from fission, with some also coming from gravitational collapse and residual heat from formation.

We have a solid core surrounded by a molten iron layer, its called friction not fussion

ChroniC · 20 Feb 2013 at 09:43

quickshot89 said:
We have a solid core surrounded by a molten iron layer, its called friction not fussion

Fusion isn't the same as fission which I'm sure you are aware, the heavier elements sank to the centre of the earth upon it's formation and radioactive decay plays at least some role in heating the core, so I believe, I have seen it officially somewhere.
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article...active-decay-accounts-for-half-of-earths-heat

Don't really understand this natural reactor thing, is it just as simple as some radioactive material, periodically boiling off some water in a cave.

DoneADougalOnSofa · 20 Feb 2013 at 09:49

Yes- there is fission in the Earth's core.
Latest research says that up to half the planet's heat comes from fission...

clicky:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/07/18/nuclear-fission-confirmed-as-source-of-more-than-half-of-earths-heat/

Angilion · 20 Feb 2013 at 13:13

dougal1331 said:
Yes- there is fission in the Earth's core.
Latest research says that up to half the planet's heat comes from fission...

clicky:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com...d-as-source-of-more-than-half-of-earths-heat/

The new measurements suggest radioactive decay provides more than half of Earth’s total heat

Radioactive decay is not what's normally thought of as fission. You could stretch the definition to make it fit as a technicality (some of the atom is splitting off), but it's not used that way. The original reports of the work by the KamLAND team do not mention fission. Various badly written "news" pages do, probably due to the author not understanding the difference. Lack of scientific knowledge is a very common problem in reporting on science.

My quick looking around leads me to think that nuclear fission (actual fission, as opposed to radioactive decay being called fission) inside the Earth is an unorthodox idea but not disproven. The latest variation puts fission under the mantle rather than in the core. I don't know enough to be able to evaluate the hypothesis of fission inside the Earth on a large scale.