FW: Oklo
Vandergraaf, Chuck (vandergraaft@aecl.ca)
Tue, 24 Feb 1998 16:44:53 -0500> Art,
>
> Thanks for your light-hearted comment. We need these comments once in
> a while to keep us from taking ourselves too seriously!
>
> If the Russians really used it as a nuclear dump, they must have
> dumped it a long time ago. (note that all fission products have
> decayed) or else they have found to accelerate the decay process, in
> which case they would not have had to ship it al the way to Africa.
>
> In reality (and I am now putting on my serious expression), things in
> Russia are much worse than we can imagine. The Soviets (and I prefer
> to use this term) used to dump their fuel reprocessing wastes in the
> Techa River, a branch of the Ob River and in Lake Karachai near Mayak
> in the southern Urals. In 1993, the activity level accumulated in the
> sediments in the area totalled 200 000 Curies (Drozhko and
> Khodakovsky, Actinides '93 conference, Santa Fe, NM).
>
> When I think of Oklo, I am reminded of the phrase in the Bible (don't
> know where offhand, Proverbs?) "there is nothing new under the sun."
> A sobering and reassuring thought.
>
> Shalom,
>
> Chuck
>
> ----------
> From: Arthur V. Chadwick[SMTP:chadwicka@swac.edu]
> Sent: February 24, 1998 5:26 PM
> To: Vandergraaf, Chuck
> Subject: Re: Oklo
>
> Thanks for the interesting summary account of the Oklo phenomenon. I
> wonder what the possibility is that the Russians were using it for a
> nuclear dump, and when they discovered the French were interested in
> buying
> the depleted Uranium, they just played along!:-))
> Art
> http://chadwicka.swau.edu
>
>
>