OKLO NATURAL REACTOR PDF
OKLO NATURAL REACTOR CODE

4 10^Ī further improvement in the accuracy of the limits can be achieved by takingĪccount of the core burnup. The detected share of U-235 of 0.717 was smaller than the. Significantly different from previous results.Ĭontrary to results of some previous papers we find no evidence for theĬhange of the fine structure constant in the past and obtain new, most accurate The traces of the natural reactor were discovered in 1972 during the analysis of the uranium deposits in todays Oklo uranium mine. Of resonance position (due to variation of fundamental constants) are The averaged cross section of Sm-149 and its dependence on the shift Spectra, which was used before for averaging cross sections in the Oklo

As would be expected, we haveįound for the fresh core a significant difference between reactor and Maxwell Temperature and void effects for the fresh core. Reactivities and neutron fluxes were calculated. The calculations were performed for threeįresh cores with different uranium contents. Base don the evidence left in he rocks, the reactor ran like clockwork for 150 million years, with a 30 minute reaction cycle, followed by a 2.5 hour cool-down cycle, putting out an average of 100 kilowatts of power. We have constructed aĬomputer model of the reactor Oklo zone RZ2 which takes into account allĭetails of design and composition. At the time of discovery, scientists were uncertain exactly how the Oklo reactor had operated without exploding or melting down.

OKLO NATURAL REACTOR CODE

Version of two Monte Carlo codes: Russian code MCU REA and world wide knownĬode MCNP (USA).

OKLO NATURAL REACTOR PDF

Miller, Computational Methods of Neutron Transport, American Nuclear Society, 1993, ISBN: 2-4.Download a PDF of the paper titled Natural Nuclear Reactor Oklo and Variation of Fundamental Constants Part 1: Computation of Neutronics of Fresh Core, by Yu.V.Petrov and 4 other authors Download PDF Abstract: Using modern methods of reactor physics we have performed full-scaleĬalculations of the natural reactor Oklo. The project contains an analysis of the physical mechanism of the Oklo natural nuclear reactor which existed about 2. Hetrick, Dynamics of Nuclear Reactors, American Nuclear Society, 1993, ISBN: 3-2. Neuhold, Introductory Nuclear Reactor Dynamics, American Nuclear Society, 1985, ISBN: 9-4. Bezella, Introductory Nuclear Reactor Statics, American Nuclear Society, Revised edition (1989), 1989, ISBN: 3-2. Department of Energy, Nuclear Physics and Reactor Theory. DOE Fundamentals Handbook, Volume 1 and 2. January 1993.

Robert Reed Burn, Introduction to Nuclear Reactor Operation, 1988.

Physics of Nuclear Kinetics. Addison-Wesley Pub. Nuclear and Particle Physics. Clarendon Press 1 edition, 1991, ISBN: 978-0198520467 Nuclear Reactor Engineering: Reactor Systems Engineering, Springer 4th edition, 1994, ISBN: 978-0412985317 Stacey, Nuclear Reactor Physics, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, ISBN: 0- 471-39127-1. At Oklo, the natural reactor fuel was chiefly in the form of 235 U. Baratta, Introduction to Nuclear Engineering, 3d ed., Prentice-Hall, 2001, ISBN: 8-1. Lamarsh, Introduction to Nuclear Reactor Theory, 2nd ed., Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA (1983). Studying such natural phenomena is important for assessing geologic repositories and is the subject of several international research projects. This was confirmed by the existence of isotopes of the fission-product gas xenon and by different ratios of U235/ U238 (enrichment of natural uranium).ĭuring this spontaneous fission, all the radionuclides found in HLW were also produced, including over 5 tonnes of fission products and 1.5 tonnes of plutonium, all of which remained at the site and eventually decayed into non-radioactive elements. These fission reactions were sustained for hundreds of thousands of years until a chain reaction could no longer be supported. The natural nuclear reactor formed at Oklo in Gabon, Africa, when a uranium-rich mineral deposit became flooded with groundwater that acted as a neutron moderator, and a nuclear chain reaction started. The world’s first nuclear reactor operated about two billion years ago (at that time, the concentration of U-235 in all natural uranium was about 3%).

One of the most important cases is the natural nuclear reactor in Oklo. It must be noted that nature has already proven that geological isolation of radioactive material is possible through several natural examples (or ‘analogs’).

Oklo natural reactor