That’s exactly what happened in 1972, when a team of French scientists analyzed a sample of uranium ore from a mine in Oklo, Gabon, and discovered that it had a lower proportion of uranium-235 than normal.
Uranium-235 is the isotope that can undergo nuclear fission, the process of splitting atoms to release energy. The scientists realized that the only possible explanation for this anomaly was that the uranium ore had been part of a natural nuclear reactor that operated in the distant past.
“After more studies, including on-site examinations, they discovered that the uranium ore had gone through fission on its own,” said Ludovic Ferrière, curator of the rock collection at Vienna’s Natural History Museum, where a part of the curious rock will be presented to the public in 2019. “There was no other explanation.”...<<<Read More>>>....