Part 9/11:
The Oaklo reactors, remnants of these ancient natural processes, offer a natural laboratory for understanding long-term radioactive waste containment. Analyses of isotopic ratios in minerals suggest that radioactive byproducts from billions of years ago remain largely contained, supporting the feasibility of geological repositories like Yucca Mountain.
Moreover, these reactors serve as probes into fundamental constants of nature, such as the fine-structure constant, which governs electromagnetic interactions. Data from the Oaklo site indicates that these constants have remained remarkably stable over billions of years, placing constraints on theories suggesting their variability.