We applied this technique to many tiny spots on our lone available fragment of Oklo rock, only one millimeter thick and four millimeters across. Of course, we first needed to decide where exactly to aim the laser beam. Here Hohenberg and I relied on our colleague Olga Pravdivtseva, who had constructed a detailed x-ray map of our sample and identified the constituent minerals. After each extraction, we purified the resulting gas and passed the xenon into Hohenberg’s mass spectrometer, which indicated the number of atoms of each isotope present.
Our first surprise was the location of the xenon. It was not, as we had expected, found to a significant extent in the uranium-rich mineral grains. Rather the lion’s share was trapped in aluminum phosphate minerals, which contain no uranium at all. Remarkably, these grains showed the highest concentration of xenon ever found in any natural material. The second epiphany was that the extracted gas had a significantly different isotopic makeup from what is usually produced in nuclear reactors. It had seemingly lost a large portion of the xenon 136 and 134 that would certainly have been created from fission, whereas the lighter varieties of the element were modified to a lesser extent.
How could such a change in isotopic composition have come about? Chemical reactions would not do the trick, because all isotopes are chemically identical. Perhaps nuclear reactions, such as neutron capture? Careful analysis allowed my colleagues and me to reject this possibility as well. We also considered the physical sorting of different isotopes that sometimes takes place: heavier atoms move a bit more slowly than their lighter counterparts and can thus sometimes separate from them. Uranium enrichment plants—industrial facilities that require considerable skill to construct— take advantage of this property to produce reactor fuel. But even if nature could miraculously create a similar process on a microscopic scale, the mix of xenon isotopes in the aluminum phosphate grains we studied would have been different from what we found. For example, measured with respect to the amount of xenon 132 present, the depletion of xenon 136 (being four atomic mass units heavier) would have been twice that of xenon 134 (two atomic mass units heavier) if physical sorting had operated. We did not see that pattern.
Our understanding of the anomalous composition of the xenon came only after we thought harder about how this gas was born. None of the xenon isotopes we measured were the direct result of uranium fission. Rather they were the products of the decay of radioactive isotopes of iodine, which in turn were formed from radioactive tellurium and so forth, according to a well-known sequence of nuclear reactions that gives rise to stable xenon.
Our key insight was the realization that different xenon isotopes in our Oklo sample were created at different times— following a schedule that depended on the half-lives of their iodine parents and tellurium grandparents. The longer a particular radioactive precursor lives, the longer xenon formation from it is held off. For example, production of xenon 136 began at Oklo only about a minute after the onset of self-sustained fission. An hour later the next lighter stable isotope, xenon 134, appeared. Then, some days after the start of fission, xenon 132 and 131 came on the scene. Finally, after millions of years, and well after the nuclear chain reactions terminated, xenon 129 formed.
Had the Oklo deposit remained a closed system, the xenon accumulated during operation of its natural reactors would have preserved the normal isotopic composition produced by fission. But scientists have no reason to think that the system was closed. Indeed, there is good cause to suspect the opposite. The evidence comes from a consideration of the simple fact that the Oklo reactors somehow regulated themselves. The most likely mechanism involves the action of groundwater, which presumably boiled away after the temperature reached some critical level. Without water present to act as a neutron moderator, nuclear chain reactions would have temporarily ceased. Only after things cooled off and sufficient groundwater once again permeated the zone of reaction could fission resume.
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13 Comments
Add CommentI believe that your time scale is incorrect (2 B Yr) as you did not account for the decay of the speed of light.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisStrange that alchemists believed that transmutation of elements was being achieved within the earth and it turns out they were right. The same process that can turn lead into gold was occuring.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this100 kilowatts is more than enough to run every single appliance at the same time in 10 the most over automated house in this county
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA well written review on an awe-inspiring discovery
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisQuite Interesting.These discoveries prove what is known is handful and what is unknown is a mighty ocean.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've often wondered about the working of these reactors. Thanks for the elucidation!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCould the Russians have been running an experiment? I'm just sayin'
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI find this simply amazing that this could happen. I mean, I see the evidence, and I don't doubt it happened, but imagine if anyone had tried to enter the cave while the fission was occurring. Ouch.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have read many things about this kind of stuff, may be it is true in some part of Chariots Of The Gods, and i believe it
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Since the advent of nuclear power generation, huge amounts of radioactive xenon 135, krypton 85 and other inert gases that nuclear plants generate have been released into the atmosphere." This is largely incorrect. Until reprocessing of the fuel takes place these fission product gases are locked into the ceramic fuel matrix inside the metallic cladding. During reprocessing the gases are captured and held for decay. In the US, since no reprocessing of commercial fuel has taken place for decades, the gases are still inside the fuel assemblies, slowly decayng off.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisall that's left of the nuke materials are seen in the stars. What's left are scattered pieces when accumulate and collected by man will produce enough mass to activate the same energy of a nuclear reaction.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisC-Decay has no substance and has been abandoned by creationists. The universe is older than 10,000 years get over it. Ironically, when I heard about the ancient reactors in Africa, I immediately thought about the first humans evolved out of Africa.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA little side agenda… We have enough nuclear power to have a nearly infinite supply of energy from reprocessing and breeder reactors… WITHOUT FUSION REACTORS… Let’s all be pro-nuclear and quit spending so much of our money on electricity. It’s truly the most ignorant thing since racism. They aren’t afraid of nuclear plants; they are afraid of what would happen if we allowed reprocessing and recycling…look it up
C-Decay has no substance and has been abandoned by creationists. The universe is older than 10,000 years get over it. Ironically, when I heard about the ancient reactors in Africa, I immediately thought about the first humans evolved out of Africa.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA little side agenda… We have enough nuclear power to have a nearly infinite supply of energy from reprocessing and breeder reactors… WITHOUT FUSION REACTORS… Let’s all be pro-nuclear and quit spending so much of our money on electricity. It’s truly the most ignorant thing since racism. They aren’t afraid of nuclear plants; they are afraid of what would happen if we allowed reprocessing and recycling…look it up