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A comment on Natural fission reactors in the Franceville basin, Gabon. Parent comment

Re:Natural fission reactors in the Franceville basin, Gabon by idoubtit on Wednesday February 05, 2025 @05:03AM (#42946374)
> I once read a horrifying fiction story about a pre-industrial culture that used nuclear reactions in open piles of uranium ore

The real world was worse than this fiction. It's easy to find pictures of old advertisements for radioactive products, in the years following the discovery of radioactivity. Radioactive pills "to boost your energy", radioactive cosmetics, radioactive false teeth... Now imagine what happened to the people that used these.

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Re:Natural fission reactors in the Franceville basin, Gabon by s1artibartfast on Wednesday February 05, 2025 @07:48AM (#42947772)
I dont think that is worse.
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Re:Natural fission reactors in the Franceville basin, Gabon by UniverseHacker on Thursday February 06, 2025 @11:38AM (#42964077)
Those real world early uses of nuclear technology were indeed awful- nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll comes to mind, which did intentional treatment vs. non-treatment experiments on the Marshall Islanders.

Even that is nothing close to the fiction I am talking about, having a class of slaves that operate a fully open nuclear reactor with hand tools.

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