Oklo Ore: The 2-Billion-Year-Old Natural Nuclear Reactor

In 1972, an unexpected discovery was made in a mine in Gabon: uranium with a 'wrong' composition. Physicists found that, billions of years ago, nature had created a natural nuclear reactor in the Oklo area.

When analyzing uranium samples from the Oklo deposit, a small but significant deviation was observed: the material contained less uranium-235 than expected. This difference was huge for scientists, as in every other natural uranium sample on Earth, the percentage of U-235 is almost identical.

Oklo is a unique case of a natural nuclear reactor, offering valuable information about the geological and nuclear processes that took place on Earth billions of years ago.