Oklo natural nuclear reactor
Reactor nuclear natural de Oklo
- Date
- 1972 · confidence high
- Place
- Oklo, Mounana, Haut-Ogooué, Gabon
- Credited to
- French Atomic Energy Commission (Francis Perrin and colleagues)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
A tiny deficit of uranium-235 in ore from Oklo revealed that around 2 billion years ago natural, water-moderated fission reactors operated there. It is the only known case on Earth.
Detected at the Pierrelatte enrichment plant (France) while analysing the Gabonese ore.
What it led to
- limits on the variation of physical constants
- the study of geological confinement of nuclear waste
- the geochemistry of fission isotopes