Oklo is a region near the town of
Franceville
Franceville is one of the four largest cities in Gabon, with a population of 110,568 at the 2013 census. It lies on the Mpassa River and at the end of the Trans-Gabon Railway and the N3 road. It grew from a village named Masuku when Pierre Savor ...
, in the
Haut-Ogooué province of the
Central Africa
Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, ...
n country of
Gabon
Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...
. Several
natural nuclear fission reactor
A natural nuclear fission reactor is a uranium deposit where self-sustaining nuclear chain reactions occur. The conditions under which a natural nuclear reactor could exist had been predicted in 1956 by Japanese American chemist Paul Kuroda. Th ...
s were discovered in the
uranium mines
Uranium production is carried out in about 13 countries around the world, in 2017 producing a cumulative total of 59,462 tonnes of uranium (tU). The international producers were Kazakhstan (39%), Canada (22%), Australia (10%), Namibia (7.1%), Nig ...
in the region in 1972.
History
Gabon was a French colony when prospectors from the
French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission
The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission or CEA ( French: Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives), is a French public government-funded research organisation in the areas of energy, defense and securit ...
(the industrial parts, which later became
Orano Cycle
Orano Cycle, formerly COGEMA (''Compagnie générale des matières nucléaires'') and Areva NC, is a French nuclear company. It is the main subsidiary of Orano S.A. It is an industrial group active in all stages of the uranium fuel cycle, inclu ...
) discovered
uranium
Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...
in the remote region in 1956. France immediately opened mines operated by Comuf () near
Mounana
Mounana is a town in Gabon. It lies on the N3 road and from 1958 until the 1990s was a major uranium mining centre. The mine is now closed, and it is now primarily a centre for agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultiva ...
village to exploit the vast mineral resources, and the State of Gabon was given a minority share in the company.
For 40 years, France mined uranium in Gabon. Once extracted, the uranium was used for electricity production in France and much of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. Today the uranium deposits are exhausted, and the mine is no longer worked. Currently,
mine reclamation
Mine reclamation is the process of modifying land that has been mined to ecologically functional or economically usable state. Although the process of mine reclamation occurs once mining is completed, the planning of mine reclamation activiti ...
work is ongoing in the region affected by the mine operations.
Some of the mined uranium was found to have a lower concentration of
uranium-235
Uranium-235 (235U or U-235) is an isotope of uranium making up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238, it is fissile, i.e., it can sustain a nuclear chain reaction. It is the only fissile isotope that exis ...
than expected, as if it had already been in a reactor. When geologists investigated they also found products typical of a reactor. They concluded that the deposit had been in a reactor: a
natural nuclear fission reactor
A natural nuclear fission reactor is a uranium deposit where self-sustaining nuclear chain reactions occur. The conditions under which a natural nuclear reactor could exist had been predicted in 1956 by Japanese American chemist Paul Kuroda. Th ...
, around 1.8 to 1.7 billion years
BP – in the
Paleoproterozoic Era during
Precambrian
The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...
times. At that time the natural uranium had a concentration of about 3%
235U, and could have reached
criticality with natural water as
neutron moderator
In nuclear engineering, a neutron moderator is a medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons, ideally without capturing any, leaving them as thermal neutrons with only minimal (thermal) kinetic energy. These thermal neutrons are immensely mo ...
allowed by the special geometry of the deposit.
See also
*
Oklo Mine
Oklo Mine (sometimes Oklo Reactor or Oklo Mines), located in Oklo, Gabon on the west coast of Central Africa, is believed to be the only natural nuclear fission reactor. Oklo consists of 16 sites at which self-sustaining nuclear fission reactio ...
*
Deep geological repository
A deep geological repository is a way of storing hazardous or radioactive waste within a stable geologic environment (typically 200–1000 m deep). It entails a combination of waste form, waste package, engineered seals and geology that is suited ...
*
List of uranium mines
Uranium production is carried out in about 13 countries around the world, in 2017 producing a cumulative total of 59,462 tonnes of uranium (tU). The international producers were Kazakhstan (39%), Canada (22%), Australia (10%), Namibia (7.1%), Nig ...
*
Mounana
Mounana is a town in Gabon. It lies on the N3 road and from 1958 until the 1990s was a major uranium mining centre. The mine is now closed, and it is now primarily a centre for agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultiva ...
References
External links
*
*
Alt URL
{{coord, 1, 23, 40, S, 13, 9, 39, E, type:mountain_region:GA_source:nlwiki, display=title
Uranium mines
Radioactive waste repositories
Mines in Gabon
Energy in Gabon
Nuclear reactors