Dave,
Thanks for this reference. I have copied the section that you referred to
directly from the ICR web page:
"Dr. Eugene Chaffin, editor of the Creation Research Society Quarterly and
professor at Bluefield College in Virginia, led off a series of three
physics presentations with, "A Study of the Variation in the Neutron
Resonance and Effective Capture Cross Section of Samarium for the Oklo
Natural Reactor." The Oklo natural reactor is a fissionable deposit of
uranium which accumulated in a sandstone layer in Africa and was apparently
active during Earth history. By looking at residual daughter elements, Dr.
Chaffin has attempted to show that the natural reaction would be consistent
with a young Earth, but not one which is billions of years old. If an
accelerated decay event occurred, the concern is that the ore in the Oklo
natural reactor would not be present in the measured amounts. In this
presentation, Dr. Chaffin calls into question the treatment of the
calculated cross section of the samarium isotopes which act as "poisons" in
the reactor to slow down the process. He suggests that several variables in
the calculation of nuclear cross section could change by orders of magnitude
under conditions of an accelerated decay rate."
Note that Chaffin did not provide any scientific evidence to show that the
Oklo phenomenon was consistent with a young earth. He only offers an
unsupported argument that "If an accelerated decay event occurred ..." The
calculation of cross section is a bit of a red herring because the Oklo
event could only have occurred with a 235/238U ratio much higher than the
current one.
Chuck Vandergraaf
-----Original Message-----
From: David F Siemens [mailto:dfsiemensjr@juno.com]
Sent: Sunday February 11, 2001 9:58 PM
To: vandergraaft@aecl.ca
Cc: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: Oklo
Chuck,
I don't recall for sure if you were the one who asked for a YEC version
of the Oklo natural reactor. I found a reference at
http://www.icr.org/pubs/imp/imp-301.htm about halfway through the list of
papers. My recollection is that I saw something in the ICR journal, but
haven't been back to the school that has a copy recently. I note that the
other summaries give an indication of the way ICR approaches
radioactivity.
Dave
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