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Mother Nature Does Nuclear Power

Posted by michael on from the global-warming dept.

wjwlsn writes "Back in the day (2 billion years ago), even before the time of iron men and wooden reactors, Mother Nature had mastered nuclear power. She built a passively safe system at Oklo that had fully automatic control and built-in waste containment, and operated it safely for about 150 million years. Now researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have deduced the operational characteristics by examining the isotopic composition of xenon contained in rock samples taken from the reactor site. More details at Eurekalert."

6 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. That brings back memories. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    In my college chemistry class we had this great textbook, and it had a small two page aside on this event.

    It's not wrong to wistfully remember chemistry texts is it?

  2. Re:Not just 2 billion years ago. by n6mod · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've always wondered about this in the context of Berkeley and Santa Cruz's "Nuclear Free Zones".

    'You! With the solar panel! Don't you know this is a Nuclear Free Zone!'

    --
    You have violated Robot's Rules of Order and will be asked to leave the future immediately.
  3. This is news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I don't mean that the news is 2 billion years ago, but that a much larger nuclear power reactor has been known for quite some time... We scientists call it: "The Sun."

  4. Re:"Mother Nature"?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Two wrongs make a right, unless they're both imaginary wrongs. Then its still wrong.

  5. Of course it does nuclear power. by FooAtWFU · · Score: 3, Funny
    And not only nuclear power, nuclear fusion power! Take a look at the sun sometime- that's a thermonuclear reaction, right there.

    What's that? You've never seen the sun? Oh, wait... Slashdot... yeah...

    --
    The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
  6. Somebody tell Bush by eap · · Score: 4, Funny

    We should invade, capture, or kill this "Mother Nature" immediately.