Natural nuclear fission reactor in Gabon
GeologyComments
It is similar to how some clay minerals naturally bind to heavy metals in other environments. It shows that nature has some built-in mechanisms for sequestering hazardous materials.
Calling it a "power plant" is imprecise. There was no power generation or infrastructure, just a self-sustaining chain reaction.
the term plant is a useful metaphor for the functional cycle, not a claim of intent.
This is exactly the kind of "natural evidence" that gets cited in zoning board meetings for deep geological repositories. In practice, getting a local community to agree to a waste site is a nightmare regardless of what happened in Gabon.
Reminds me of the arguments used for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. They leaned heavily on salt bed stability, which sounds great until you consider actual permeability over millions of years.
I wonder if the groundwater in Gabon behaved differently than what we see in modern proposed sites... like, did the specific mineral composition of the rock help neutralize the toxins... ?
The article notes that the plutonium-239 decayed, but the fission products remained mostly trapped in the uranium matrix. The minerals themselves acted as the primary barrier.