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Are there Nuclear Reactors at Earth's core/mantle?

Current forecast: 49% chance 3%
Combining all predictions, the current forecast is that this is 49% likely to happen (up 3% in last 1 day)

How can the existence of these reactors some 3,000 kilometres beneath our feet be proved? De Meijer and Westrenen say that the reactions will generate very light subatomic particles called antineutrinos, which can mostly pass right through Earth and so could be detected by instruments at the surface. Such particles produced by nuclear decay in the mantle have already been seen by a neutrino detector in Japan4.

Neutrino detectors that can sense the direction from which such particles came are now being planned. De Meijer and van Westrenen are both members of a Dutch collaboration called Stichting EARTH, which is aiming to develop such detectors for three-dimensional tomographic mapping of antineutrino sources in the earth. A georeactor would show up in such a survey as a particularly intense, localized source at the core-mantle boundary.

Full Story: http://tinyurl.com/6mtbjh


Settlement details: As reported by a major mainstream news source.

 
Forecast history, %
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Make your prediction!

Yes
49%
No
51%
Activity: H$7,253
Question suspends in 25 weeks

Suspend date: Sat 16th May 2009 12:59am PDT (25 weeks to go)
more info...

 

Predictions (47)

47 predictions

2 weeks ago
kent1423 predicted No (H$857 at 52%)
8 weeks ago
rogerkni predicted Yes (H$500 at 48%)
10 weeks ago
bout3fitty predicted No (H$300 at 52%)
11 weeks ago
ranchorosco predicted No (H$50 at 52%)
12 weeks ago
brosenau predicted No (H$10 at 52%)
more

Comments (15)

  1 markov
This is a way cool informative question! I remember speculation about this when I was in school. If someone can prove it I'll bet they get a Nobel prize. True "Global Warming".
posted 27 weeks ago
  2 skipper[Power User]
plug goes where? ;)
posted 27 weeks ago
Hey Mork, cool question.

The link you provided: http://tinyurl.com/6mtbjh is a link back to this question
posted 27 weeks ago
  4 mork[Power User]
Great Question! Thanks for the link....I'm in, and I'm reading...
posted 27 weeks ago
thanks for the link, mork!
posted 27 weeks ago
without the link, i almost wondered aloud "WTF?", but this is another one of those informative questions, regardless of outcome, that i wish we had more of.... and that i wish i could provide more of....KUDOS to skipper... i'll buy the first round!
posted 27 weeks ago
oops...."Kudos to Mork...i'll buy the first round!" (sorry, mork, looked at bets...new format has me all screwy)
posted 27 weeks ago
  9 markov
tocm -

New format messed me up, too. Almost made the same mistake.
posted 27 weeks ago
  10 skipper[Power User]
:(
/me wants Kudos!
posted 26 weeks ago
  11 mork[Power User]
I have been alerted that this question should be clarified.

It seems the title of the article I used as a basis of this question (http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080515/full/news.2008.822.html?s=news_rss) is not accurately referring to the true question at hand.

The article refers to the mantle as being a possible source of nuclear activity. As the creator of this question I should have included the mantle as a possible source leading to an outcome of 'yes' in order to accurately pose the question I meant to ask.

Thanks Rogerkni for recognizing this and rightfully flagging this question.

I am going to add the word 'mantle' to the question now.

If anybody's wager was made in error because of this confusion, please let us know.

Apologies,
posted 13 weeks ago
  12 tisha[Admin]
The question title has now been amended from the Earth's core to the Earth's mantle.

If you feel that this has significantly changed your prediction, feel free to send me an email by flagging this question.
posted 13 weeks ago
  13 rogerkni
Hi: I'm posting this here rather than clicking "flag for review" because it has become inactive (unclickable)--this is a possible system bug that should be fixed. I've noticed it elsewhere, after I made use of the feature by clicking it. My suggestion was that the words "or mantle" be appended to the question. IOW, both core and mantle should count. (Maybe "far underground" would do instead.) Any sort of concentrated mass or masses of uranium deep beneath our feet would be a major discovery, and we shouldn't split hairs about how deep it or they are located.
posted 13 weeks ago
@ rogerkni -- unfortunately, a flag can currently only be used once.
After that, you can add a comment here, or by using the "Contact Us" link (located at the bottom of every page), and ask that your message be forwarded to the appropriate category editor.

(I have flagged this question for you, so there ought to be a response shortly.)
posted 13 weeks ago
  15 tisha[Admin]
Ok thansk rogerkni, I can see that this was the intention of your original flag. Question has been edited to 'core or mantle'
posted 13 weeks ago

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