I heard about that in college 25 years ago! I was talking about it to my brother just a week ago but i'm NOT a nuclear physicist at all, i didn't know how to explain it like you do, so he didn't really believe me! Thx i will send him the link right now! (i love the channel btw keep posting👍)
Stephen Baxter covers something like this in somewhere like Africa in his book, Space. Great read, and that segment of the book is... good. Poor Malenfant.
(If you want an idea for a future video, explaining nuclear fusion would be much appreciated. It's really interesting, but I have a hard time understanding the whole thing)
BTW... Have you played Nucleares on Steam? Would make an interesting video (if you are permitted) to see how you play with the simulated reactor. (It's basically a "College level" PWR quite like TMI). There is no manual and they aren't actually allowed to give you one apparently.
@@AtomicAgeofReason It's a very steep learning curve, though maybe not for you. I have made it through about 4 refueling cycles without major event, all audits passed. The most annoying thing is the pressurizer. Its just difficult to keep it balanced. Everything is fine for days and then pressurizer under pressure alarm or a transient steam alarm. The trouble seems to be how the game models wear and integrity of components/machines. If you let the pressurizer get out of tolerance once, it damages it slightly and it just won't retain balance from then on. You have to constantly switch the manual heaters in and out. Other than that, balancing the heat flow through the steam gens, turbines and condensor with the reactor "factor" is the hardest bit to work out as it can reach many different equilibriums, so unless you know that you just chase your tail and constantly drop out of steam, drying the steam gens or flooding them.
I saw a lot of explaining vids, you do such a superior job of explaining, that I enjoyed this so much! Thanks and careful with them reactions out there lol… half life omg lol I’m glowing now…☢️🤢👻
Surely it doesn't need to be a sustained critical reaction, a pulsed, spartatic, infrequent sequence of small fissions would still make the daughters. Of course natural uranium under goes fission, why would it not? It's just that the 0.7% thing being the initiator of any means it is small and cant go critical at any mass. I am assuming all naturally occurring uranium has daughter isotopes or possibly 'activated' or heavier elements like Pu.
So, Yes, uranium undergoes natural fission periodically. However, that is a predictable statistical property of the material. The thing here is that there was a LOT more of the fission products than should have been there indicating a significant amount of fissioning beyond what would be expected. Yes, it is possible for natural uranium to be used for sustained fission, but not with normal light water as a moderator. The CANDU reactors use heavy water as their moderator and use natural uranium as a fuel. It is not really possible for what we're talking about with a 'natural" reactor like at Oklo.
Great video. Amazed your channel didn't take off. Would love to connect/pick your brain re Oklo..
I heard about that in college 25 years ago! I was talking about it to my brother just a week ago but i'm NOT a nuclear physicist at all, i didn't know how to explain it like you do, so he didn't really believe me! Thx i will send him the link right now! (i love the channel btw keep posting👍)
Stephen Baxter covers something like this in somewhere like Africa in his book, Space. Great read, and that segment of the book is... good. Poor Malenfant.
Truly fascinating! 🌟
(If you want an idea for a future video, explaining nuclear fusion would be much appreciated. It's really interesting, but I have a hard time understanding the whole thing)
Thank you for the idea. I'll add it to the list. I believe fusion could be our future and would love to help people understand how it works.
Insane that such a thing could have even come to be. Awesomen!
BTW... Have you played Nucleares on Steam? Would make an interesting video (if you are permitted) to see how you play with the simulated reactor. (It's basically a "College level" PWR quite like TMI). There is no manual and they aren't actually allowed to give you one apparently.
I have not played that. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the idea.
@@AtomicAgeofReason It's a very steep learning curve, though maybe not for you. I have made it through about 4 refueling cycles without major event, all audits passed.
The most annoying thing is the pressurizer. Its just difficult to keep it balanced. Everything is fine for days and then pressurizer under pressure alarm or a transient steam alarm.
The trouble seems to be how the game models wear and integrity of components/machines. If you let the pressurizer get out of tolerance once, it damages it slightly and it just won't retain balance from then on. You have to constantly switch the manual heaters in and out.
Other than that, balancing the heat flow through the steam gens, turbines and condensor with the reactor "factor" is the hardest bit to work out as it can reach many different equilibriums, so unless you know that you just chase your tail and constantly drop out of steam, drying the steam gens or flooding them.
I saw a lot of explaining vids, you do such a superior job of explaining, that I enjoyed this so much!
Thanks and careful with them reactions out there lol… half life omg lol
I’m glowing now…☢️🤢👻
Is that a batik tablecloth behind you?
It’s a blanket that has a Persian carpet-style print.
Surely it doesn't need to be a sustained critical reaction, a pulsed, spartatic, infrequent sequence of small fissions would still make the daughters. Of course natural uranium under goes fission, why would it not? It's just that the 0.7% thing being the initiator of any means it is small and cant go critical at any mass. I am assuming all naturally occurring uranium has daughter isotopes or possibly 'activated' or heavier elements like Pu.
Sorry. Correcting myself. It can go critical with the right moderator and shape.
So, Yes, uranium undergoes natural fission periodically. However, that is a predictable statistical property of the material. The thing here is that there was a LOT more of the fission products than should have been there indicating a significant amount of fissioning beyond what would be expected.
Yes, it is possible for natural uranium to be used for sustained fission, but not with normal light water as a moderator. The CANDU reactors use heavy water as their moderator and use natural uranium as a fuel. It is not really possible for what we're talking about with a 'natural" reactor like at Oklo.
Something about this is kinda creepy.
Not great, not terrible