Mentioning the recent Chernobyl accident is weird too. Surely an accident from long ago that is expected to be detectable is far more helpful.

All they proved is that nothing had entered since the Chernobyl accident.

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defrost 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's an AI article.

Looking for Chernobyl signature in cave during the late 1980s / early 1990s does seem daft - far more likely for them to be looking for residual "trace" from the atmospheric tests that doused the planet in "unnatural" residuals and odd isotopes.

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fragmede 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Have there been many nuclear reactor meltdowns prior to Chernobyl?

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defrost 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Before 1986 there have been twelve "public" core meltdowns, and at least six, likely more, incidents not public on nuclear subs, etc.

~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_and_radiation_accident...

You should look up how many live armed nuclear bombs have been accidentally dropped on mainland US soil.

More significantly, there's been a lot of above ground and atmospheric tests that have draped residuals across the planet, and a bunch of dirty Russian / former USSR sites that drift trace across Europe.

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inigyou 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Isn't there a nuclear bomb sitting somewhere in a swamp in the USA that everybody lost?

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defrost 2 hours ago | parent [-]

"Yes"

- TBH I'd be surprised if it's still "lost" - not further reported on because [ XXXredactedXXX ] is more likely.

	▲	rbanffy 6 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Also, if the finding is never recorded, it can be used to frame just about anyone who can be accused of finding it and smuggling it out of the US.

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hvb2 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You could just look for isotopes from the atmospheric nuclear tests that were conducted? Doesn't need to be a reactor I would assume?

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nbernard 9 minutes ago | parent [-]

Indeed. That's one of the reasons why the "Before Present" time scale (that uses 1/1/1950 as the epoch) is sometimes called "Before Physics" (another one being that 1950 is less and less "present", of course)!

	▲	rbanffy 4 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> that uses 1/1/1950 as the epoch I guess we can say this is when humankind reached adulthood, became able to drink and got a driver’s license. And a gun.