In follow-up hypothetical analysis of the Lugano measurements, consider this. Look at what it means for the ICP-MS assay of the fuel to have 94.1% 7Li and 5.9% 6Li. With 100mg of LiAlH4 fuel source, the fuel source had 17.2mg of 7Li and 1.08mg of 6Li. If one *presumes* that 6Li is not being created and doesn't participate in the reaction; then in the ash there will still be 1.08mg of 6Li. The ICP-MS analysis of the ash shows that there is 42.5% of 7Li and 57.5% of 6Li. Since (by presumption) there is still 1.08mg of 6Li left in the ash, there is only 0.79 mg of 7Li in the ash. The amount of 7Li has decreased from 17.2mg to 0.79mg from fuel to ash. Thus, only 0.79mg/17.2mg or only about 1/22 of the original 7Li remains in the ash - based on the presumption that no 6Li was created. Because the reaction showed no major output heat decline due to only 1/22 of the original 7Li being present by the end of the reaction, it suggests to me that the 7Li may not be the primary source of heat in the reaction. As an aside, if the heat produced over the course of the experiment was due solely to the "burning" of 7Li, the consumption of (17.2 - 0.79) = 16.41 mg of 7Li would require the reaction to produce ~8.4 MeV per atom of burned 7Li (based on the revised heat output of the Lugano experiment). More likely the hypothesis that 6Li is not created and 7Li burning produces the heat is not correct. This hypothetical argument suggests that the 7Li is participating in the reaction (perhaps producing some excess heat), some 6Li is probably being created in the reaction, and much of the heat is coming from some other reaction - perhaps the transmutation/isotopic shift in the Ni which was not depleted by the end of the reaction.
Piantelli's theory supports this. He uses Li as a booster for his reactors - using the Li to create excess heat from the 6 MeV protons being produced (resulting in more than 6 MeV of heat per proton). However, he does have excess heat without the Li. Bob Higgins On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 1:30 AM, <mix...@bigpond.com> wrote: > In reply to Bob Higgins's message of Wed, 8 Apr 2015 10:12:11 -0600: > Hi, > [snip] > >The ICP-MS analysis is a full volume analysis and showed both Li isotopes > near equal in percentage in the ash. > > Just a thought: If the Li was acting as a nuclear catalyst, shuttling back > and > forth between Li6-Li7, then a roughly equal distribution on the whole > might be > expected, since a preponderance of one over the other would lead to an > increase > in the number of reactions of the predominant isotope, resulting in more > of them > being converted to the other. > > i.e. an excess of Li7 would yield more reactions converting Li7 to Li6, > and an > excess of Li6 would result in more reactions converting Li6 to Li7. > > Regards, > > Robin van Spaandonk > > http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html > >