Oklo is a region near Franceville in the Haut-Ogooué province of Gabon . Several natural nuclear fission reactors were discovered in the uranium mines in the region in 1972.
16-485: Gabon was a French colony when prospectors from the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (the industrial parts, which later became Orano Cycle ) discovered uranium in the remote region in 1956. France immediately opened mines operated by Comuf ( Compagnie des Mines d'Uranium de Franceville ) near Mounana village to exploit the vast mineral resources, and the state of Gabon
32-581: A nuclear reactor . When geologists investigated they also found products typical of a reactor. They concluded that the deposit had been in a reactor: a natural nuclear fission reactor , around 1.8 to 1.7 billion years BP – in the Paleoproterozoic Era during Precambrian times, during the Statherian period – and continued for a few hundred thousand years, probably averaging less than 100 kW of thermal power during that time. At that time
48-451: Is a French public government-funded research organisation in the areas of energy, defense and security, information technologies and health technologies. The CEA maintains a cross-disciplinary culture of engineers and researchers, building on the synergies between fundamental and technological research. CEA is headed by a board headed by the general administrator (currently François Jacq [ fr ] since 20 April 2018 ), advised by
64-550: Is divided into four directorates , or divisions: The direction des énergies [ fr ] (DES) comprises four institutes: The direction de la recherche technologique [ fr ] (DRT), known also as CEA Tech division, is divided between two CEA sites, at Saclay and Grenoble. CEA Tech focuses on technological research and development in the field of energy, IT (both hardware and software) and healthcare informatics. It plays an active role in transferring knowledge and research to industry. The CEA Tech division
80-477: Is further divided into three research institutes: The current director of DRT since january 2023 is Julie Galland. The direction de la recherche fondamentale [ fr ] (DRF) consists of 9 institutes: The current DRF director since 2 november 2019 is Elsa Cortijo. The direction des applications militaires [ fr ] (DAM) builds the nuclear weapons of the French military and designs
96-525: The article wizard to submit a draft for review, or request a new article . Search for " François Jacq " in existing articles. Look for pages within Misplaced Pages that link to this title . Other reasons this message may be displayed: If a page was recently created here, it may not be visible yet because of a delay in updating the database; wait a few minutes or try the purge function . Titles on Misplaced Pages are case sensitive except for
112-501: The natural uranium had a concentration of about 3% U and could have reached criticality with natural water as neutron moderator allowed by the special geometry of the deposit. 1°23′40″S 13°9′39″E / 1.39444°S 13.16083°E / -1.39444; 13.16083 Commissariat %C3%A0 l%27%C3%A9nergie atomique The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission , or CEA ( French : Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives ),
128-1211: The Digital Sector and the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Marine Affairs. Fran%C3%A7ois Jacq Look for François Jacq on one of Misplaced Pages's sister projects : [REDACTED] Wiktionary (dictionary) [REDACTED] Wikibooks (textbooks) [REDACTED] Wikiquote (quotations) [REDACTED] Wikisource (library) [REDACTED] Wikiversity (learning resources) [REDACTED] Commons (media) [REDACTED] Wikivoyage (travel guide) [REDACTED] Wikinews (news source) [REDACTED] Wikidata (linked database) [REDACTED] Wikispecies (species directory) Misplaced Pages does not have an article with this exact name. Please search for François Jacq in Misplaced Pages to check for alternative titles or spellings. You need to log in or create an account and be autoconfirmed to create new articles. Alternatively, you can use
144-658: The University Paris-Saclay. The INSTN, Institut national des sciences et techniques nucléaires (National Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology) is a public higher education institution administered by the CEA (French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission) under the joint authority of the Ministry of National Education , Higher Education and Research, the Ministry of the Economy , Industry and
160-470: The decision was published in the Journal officiel de la République française . It conducts fundamental and applied research into many areas, including the design of nuclear reactors , the manufacturing of integrated circuits , the use of radionucleides for curing illnesses, seismology and tsunami propagation, the safety of computerized systems , etc. It has one of the top 100 supercomputers in
176-935: The high-commissioner for atomic energy (currently Patrick Landais [ fr ] ). Its yearly budget amounts to €5.8 billion and its permanent staff is slightly over 21,000 persons. CEA was created in 1945; since then, the successive high-commissioners have been Frédéric Joliot-Curie , Francis Perrin , Jacques Yvon [ fr ] , Jean Teillac [ fr ] , Raoul Dautry , René Pellat [ fr ] , Bernard Bigot , Catherine Cesarsky , Daniel Verwaerde [ fr ] , and François Jacq [ fr ] . In December 2009, French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared that CEA should change its name from Commissariat à l’énergie atomique (English: Commission for Atomic Energy ) to Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (English: Commission for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies ); this change took effect on 10 March 2010, when
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#1732776233705192-645: The power plants for the nuclear submarines of the French Navy . The sites of the DAM include: CEA has spun off multiple companies, some being partial subsidiaries or where CEA has minority interest. Some such companies are listed below: CEA has played an active role in research, development and innovation in the four main areas of low-carbon energies (nuclear and renewable), technologies for information and health technologies, very large research infrastructures (TGIR), and defense and global security. Moreover, two of
208-530: The ten CEA centers across France have joined with the University of Paris-Saclay to develop high quality research and training. The centers which form a part of the University of Paris-Saclay include: (Since 2017, these two centers merged into CEA Paris-Saclay center, and are now referred to as sites in that center.) The CEA researchers involved in the University of Paris-Saclay represent over 20% of
224-403: The university's research potential, particularly in the field of physics and engineering. CEA maintains a strong presence in training to master and engineer level by administering INSTN , wherein various courses are taught by its researchers. CEA has around 400 researchers who hold an accreditation to supervise research, making it a significant contributor to the research and doctoral programs of
240-632: The world, the Tera-100 . TERA 100, first system designed and built in Europe to reach the petaflops in 2010, was ranked in 5th position in the worldwide TOP 500. CEA is now building TERA-1000 which is a key step in the implementation of their Exascale program for the computing needs that CEA would face by 2020. In March 2016, Reuters published an article describing the "Top 25 Global Innovators – Government" and placed CEA as "number one" amongst "The World's Most Innovative Research Institutions." CEA
256-586: Was given a minority share in the company. For 40 years, France mined uranium in Gabon. Once extracted, the uranium was used for electricity production in France and much of Europe. Today the uranium deposits are exhausted, and the mine is no longer active. Currently, mine reclamation work is ongoing in the region affected by the mine operations. Some of the mined uranium was found to have a lower concentration of uranium-235 than expected, as if it had already been in
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