Constantine

Comment Threads

• Trottelreiner commented on Wow
  The main problem I have with this happening on Mars is that the wikipedia article on natural nuclear reactors mentions they have two constrains: a) uranium is only soluable when there is some oxygen around, which means it takes some time with developing biosphere and such. b) there has to be lots of fissile uranium isotopes around, which means it has to be early in planetary history, else the isotopes decay. Which, first of, explains why natural reactors are somewhat rare, and second of, means some problems for Mars with the oxygen. Now there are quite some salts with oxidation...
• Greg. Tingey commented on Wow
  Whatever happens, 19/20 October next year is going to be very interesting, from an astronomical-observation viewpoint, isn't it?...
• george.herbert commented on Wow
  Constantine wrote, in part: a) he says that the "reactor" was "tamped" by the overlying rock but doesn't provide any calculations to support this (and for all I know forgot that Mars has lower gravity than Earth, so pressure is lower at a given depth). That's a fairly critical part of the scenario that we just have to take his word for. I think that I mentioned some expertise in this. In this case, tamping is the correct term of art for material intimately in contact with the fast fission "pit" or mass of reacting fissile and fissionable material, which...
• paws4thot commented on Wow
  Yeah, I'd slipped magnitudes when I tried to do a re-normalisation in my head....
• zhochaka commented on Wow
  That's the original paper's claim, but papers at conferences can be rather flimsy pieces of science. This one doesn't hold up to informed examination....