Nuclear Planet : A 5 mile wide hellishly hot Uranium core seething at the center of Earth ??

List members , this sure is an interesting read about the Nuclear core at the center of all (Hollow) Planets in our Universe :-

Nuclear Planet.pdf (623.8 KB)

Regards

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List members , the Earth's magnetic field has some really weird behaviour - and a ball of molten iron at Earth's core , simply cannot explain any such phenomena .

A natural nuclear reactor or "georeactor" at the core of Earth and all other Hollow planets , can much more easily explain this - especially if the nuclear reaction has been triggered by confined electrical plasma , like it's done inside a Tokamak's hollow metallic shell :-

Is Earth’s magnetic field powered by a ‘nuclear reactor’?

Carolyn Krause/The Oak Ridger

Dan Hollenbach talks to Friends of ORNL via Zoom.

In August 2002, a cover article appeared in Discover magazine on the “Nuclear Planet.” The article introduced lay readers to a new fringe theory that deep in Earth is a “five-mile wide ball of uranium” that “burns, churns, and reacts, creating the planet's magnetic field, as well as the heat that powers volcanoes and continental-plate movements.”

The article noted that Earth’s magnetic field repels particles from the sun, preventing solar radiation from stripping away the atmosphere and from destroying life on Earth.

The “nuclear planet” theory was proposed in 1993 by J. Marvin Herndon, now president of the Transdyne Corp. in San Diego, Calif., who published a paper titled, “Feasibility of a Nuclear Fission Reactor at the Center of the Earth as the Energy Source for the Geomagnetic Field.”

A few years later, Dan Hollenbach, then a nuclear engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, modeled the deep-Earth reactor using ORNL’s computer codes that simulate nuclear fuel consumption and isotope inventories in operating fission reactors. Then the two men co-authored a paper on the theory published Sept. 25, 2001, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Their paper was titled, “Deep-Earth Reactor: Nuclear Fission, Helium, and the Geomagnetic Field.”

In the nuclear reactor earth model, the uranium and actinides that produce nuclear energy are located in the sub-core in the center. The fluid core in this model consists of iron and sulfur, and the inner core contains nickel silicide. In the widely accepted traditional geophysical model, the fluid core and inner core consist of nickel and iron, some of which is partially crystallized.

The controversial theory has not yet successfully challenged the traditional view of geophysicists since the 1940s. Here’s how the Discover article described the traditional Earth model found in textbooks: “Earth's inner core is a huge ball of partially crystallized iron and nickel, slowly cooling and growing as it surrenders heat into a fluid core. Radioactivity, in this model, is just a supplementary heat source, with widely dispersed isotopes decaying on their own, not concentrated.”

Speaking to Friends of ORNL via Zoom recently, Hollenbach provided evidence for the possible existence of a deep-Earth reactor, or georeactor. He said that the more likely scenario is that there may be hundreds or thousands of nuclear reactors formed from concentrations of radioactive uranium isotopes near Earth’s center. Because uranium is the heaviest and densest natural element (under pressures deep within Earth), he argued that significant amounts of uranium metal likely have diffused by gravitational force toward Earth’s core.

Hollenbach, who now works as a criticality safety engineer for the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex, said that evidence supporting the model includes the 1972 discovery by French scientists of the fossil remains of an underground nuclear reactor in a uranium mine at Oklo in the Republic of Gabon in Africa.

“If nuclear fission can occur naturally near the surface, why wouldn’t it occur deep in the earth?” Hollenbach asked.

Using SCALE nuclear safety analysis codes, Hollenbach simulated a georeactor that would function as a fast neutron breeder reactor and have an energy output (under 3 terawatts) that would enable it to heat the planet’s core and power its magnetic field for 4.5 billion years, the widely accepted age of Earth. The initial density and relative abundance of uranium isotopes that he assumed for his simulation were based on what is determined to be present in a certain kind of meteor that is almost oxygen-free (as Earth was during its formation).

By absorbing neutrons, the uranium isotope U-235 would break into lighter elements more readily than the much more abundant uranium isotope U-238, releasing considerable heat energy and neutrons that will trigger more fission, or self-sustaining chain reactions. Free neutrons absorbed by U-238 nuclei can cause the formation of plutonium-239, another nuclear fuel. This process, known as breeding, can significantly extend the lifetime of a nuclear reactor.

Hollenbach’s calculations also generated data on the fission products that would result from uranium fission deep within Earth, as well as from radioactive decay. He showed that two helium isotopes, He-3 and He-4, would be produced in the same relative proportion by georeactors as helium isotopes found in basalt extruded from volcanic lavas in Hawaii and Iceland. Because helium is a light noble gas that does not react with other materials, it could migrate from a georeactor to hot spots on Earth’s surface. “The only way helium is produced on the Earth is through fission or decay of heavy elements,” he said.

When helium was first discovered in the 1960s on Earth’s surface, it was assumed that helium gas in space was trapped in the surface during Earth’s formation. Hollenbach said trapped helium would have outgassed during Earth’s molten stage. He found that the ratio of He-3 to He-4 at the surface corresponds to the ratio calculated to be produced by deep-Earth fission. It’s not the same as the ratio of helium isotopes formed in the air by cosmic rays (which is up to 34 times lower).

Because most fission products are lighter and less dense than nuclear fuel in a georeactor, Hollenbach said, they most likely migrate away from a georeactor after accumulating there. As a result, the georeactor’s energy output will stop decreasing and start to rise again.

The Earth’s magnetic field varies in strength and has flipped its polarity over millions of years. These changes, he suggested, could be explained by georeactors that turn on and off.

“The cyclic nature of geomagnetic field reversals and periodic high volcanic and plate tectonic activity indicate a varied power source,” he said.

If beryllium-10 and certain noble gases were discovered in deep mantle magmas and volcanic lavas and if anti-neutrinos could be detected, such evidence would help validate the georeactor model, he added. A FORNL participant suggested that Hollenbach confer with researchers at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica.

Hollenback asserted that an even better understanding of georeactors could be attained through simulations using advanced software on today’s supercomputers — if funding for such a study is available.

The deep-Earth reactor theory has been generally ignored, but if it were proven true, “it would be the biggest news in geophysics in decades,” the Discover magazine article stated and then quoted Hatten Yoder, director emeritus of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington: “I would rank it right up there with plate tectonics as one of the truly great discoveries.”

Schematic of Earth with a nuclear reactor deep within its core.

Regards

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List members , all physics textbooks tell us that iron LOSES it magnetism as it heats up , so once it's molten , magnetic properties diminish exponentially . Even if you add high pressure and "convection/circulation of the molten iron" into the environment , it won't do much to sustain magnetism , that too over BILLIONs of years !! How is it even possible without a SUSTAINABLE energy source at the planetary core (like a natural nuclear reactor) ? Even the most elementary laws of Thermodynamics seem to have been forgotten by mainstream planetologists....

Given this basic , elementary fact about the magnetic properties of iron , how can any sane person believe that Earth's core is made of molten iron ??

This is just one of the many unexplained facets of the solid Earth theory and it's claim about a ball of molten iron at the Earth's core .

Then there is the mysterious "flipping" of Earth's magnetic poles , alternative weakening/strengthening of it's magnetic field , about every few hundred thousand years , as also the strange "wandering" movement of the magnetic poles . Add to that unusual phenomena , such as the South Atlantic anomaly and you get to a point where almost nothing about Earth's magnetic field's DYNAMIC behaviour , can be explained by the mainstream theory of Earth's core - it's the Achilles heel of their theory :))

Regards

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