Re: [Vo]:Thorium breeding now?
In reply to bobcook39...@hotmail.com's message of Thu, 2 May 2019 17:36:47 +: Hi Bob, [snip] >With such a reactor, I would hope a scale-up in size with several prototype >reactors is in the card to demonstrate validation of the design concept. That would certainly be the prudent thing to do. Note that much of the initial work has already been done in various places. Google "Aqueous Homogeneous Reactor". >Controlling the concentration of dissolved fuelU-235 in the thorium breeder >reactor concept would be difficult to assure a reasonably steady power with >good reactivity control IMHO. Possibly, though reprocessing is "designed in", and changes can be made in very small increments to "test the waters". ;) [snip] Regards, Robin van Spaandonk local asymmetry = temporary success
Re: [Vo]:Thorium breeding now?
wrote: Some points. > > 1) The fuel is dissolved in the water, so initially there is no fuel in the > reactor until water is added, then criticality is achieved at startup by > pulling > control rods somewhat once the water (and fuel) has been added. > At this point, the negative temperature coefficient is already in effect. > . . . All in all, this sounds much better than a conventional uranium reactor. I have heard that the people at BARC are enthusiastic about this kind of reactor.
RE: [Vo]:A catalytic converter might be a cold fusion cell
Jed— H is not a bad choice for LENR in Pd. If D can react in a Pd lattice to form He-4, why could H not react to form D? There may be no neutrons produced and a couple positrons with some kind of neutrinos. Spin energy may or may not be involved. It would depend upon the net spin of the two H’s that happen to come together in a lattice interstitial site. An excited high-spin state may occur in each H giving up potential energy as the two H’s approach and at the same instant give up the extra spin energy to Pd electron orbital spin—a coherent system reaction of potential energy changing to kinetic energy. Local changes in the magnetic field at or near the surface of a Pd lattice may substantially increase or decrease the probability of resonant conditions necessary for the reaction. The magnetic field may strongly couple the coherent system and substantially increase the reaction rate. Bob Cook From: Jed Rothwell Sent: Thursday, May 2, 2019 5:34:25 AM To: Vortex Subject: Re: [Vo]:A catalytic converter might be a cold fusion cell Jones Beene mailto:jone...@pacbell.net>> wrote: Hmmm... Actually, a few years ago there was indeed a flash of interest in doing this - using catalytic converters for thermal gain.. . . . Nothing was memorable from this extensive effort IIRC, but these efforts were generally using H2 instead of D2. That is an odd choice for Pd. - Jed
RE: [Vo]:Thorium breeding now?
With such a reactor, I would hope a scale-up in size with several prototype reactors is in the card to demonstrate validation of the design concept. Controlling the concentration of dissolved fuel—U-235 in the thorium breeder reactor concept would be difficult to assure a reasonably steady power with good reactivity control IMHO. Bob Cook From: mix...@bigpond.com Sent: Wednesday, May 1, 2019 2:08:49 PM To: vortex-l@eskimo.com Subject: Re: [Vo]:Thorium breeding now? In reply to bobcook39...@hotmail.com's message of Wed, 1 May 2019 02:47:34 +: Hi Bob, Some points. 1) The fuel is dissolved in the water, so initially there is no fuel in the reactor until water is added, then criticality is achieved at startup by pulling control rods somewhat once the water (and fuel) has been added. At this point, the negative temperature coefficient is already in effect. 2) If all the water were to rapidly evaporate, and leave a solid salt (impossible by the way), the reactor would long have shut down because only fast neutrons with a too small fission cross section would remain (i.e. no moderator). If the water were all to leak out, then the fuel would go with it leaving an empty reactor. Leakage should probably be caught in a flat tray with an area large enough to ensure that only a thin layer could exist even with all the water from the reactor in it. The large area thin layer would ensure that too many neutrons would be lost to sustain a chain reaction in the pan. This is a passive safety measure. Furthermore anything leaking into the pan under normal use could be pumped back into the reactor ensuring that it could keep running normally even with a leak. 3) Because fission products are constantly being removed during operation (liquid fuel cycle), there would be few left to produce decay heat, so a melt-down could not happen. 4) If all external systems fail at once, and there is no leak, then the water boils off (pressure release valve) and the reactor shuts down (no moderator). 5) Another advantage of a liquid fuel reactor is that the total fuel load in the reactor at any one time can be kept small, and fuel constantly added as required. I.e. it doesn't need to have years worth of fuel in the reactor at all times. This is another safety feature. >Without water—lost in the steam production—the negative temperature coeff. Is >diminished or lost completely. ...but while this is happening the reaction stops (loss of moderator). > > > >The rate at which reactivity is added to the reactor is important in startup >to avoid super criticality and an uncontrolled –run-away—reaction. Any >positive temperature coeff. resulting in an increase in fast neutron flux is >unacceptable and needs to be avoided. Loss of liquid water would be a >problem if it happened fast and added reactivity and loss of the negative >temperature coeff. > > > >Bob Cook [snip] Regards, Robin van Spaandonk local asymmetry = temporary success
RE: [Vo]:A catalytic converter might be a cold fusion cell
Jed— Thanks for that Fralick report. It leaves the reader hanging with the last 2 sentences just before the list of references. IMHO. The obvious speculation is that He-4 was formed in the Pd lattice that had been filled with D atoms which were squashed together in lattice sites near the surface during evacuation and cooling. Nuclear spin states coupled with the electronic spin states over many electrons, caused nuclear spin energy into lattice electron spin energy—i.e., heat of the lattice. Each reaction was without production of neutrons and happened in a very short time interval—maybe one quantum of time. The Pd was manufactured with large single grains—a large QM coherent system---to spread the distribution of each reaction’s potential energy over many electrons and their orbital angular momentum or spin kinetic energy. There was no linear momentum involved in the reaction and, hence, no energetic particles as reaction products. It was a many-body coherent reaction limited by a physical change in resonant conditions resulting from the reaction. Fralick should have looked for He-4 in the reaction with a mass spec machine and statistically likely resonant EM field conditions associated with spin energy coupling within the coherent system. I am surprised that was not accomplished and reported. It probably was accomplished in subsequent testing, but not reported by the Lewis Research Facility. Bob Cook From: Jed Rothwell Sent: Wednesday, May 1, 2019 7:57:27 PM To: Vortex Subject: [Vo]:A catalytic converter might be a cold fusion cell I have often noted that Pd thin film catalytic converters resemble cold fusion cells. Actually, for all anyone knows, they might be cold fusion cells. I have often suggested the someone should buy a brand new one, fill it with high pressure pure deuterium gas, and then heat it up. It might produce anomalous heat. I do not know what the honeycomb substrate in those gadgets is made of. If it has Ni in it, I'll bet it would produce heat. If this works, it would resemble the way Fralick got heat from a conventional hydrogen purifier: https://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/FralickGCresultsofa.pdf They cost around $1,200, in case you are in the market for one: https://repairpal.com/estimator/catalytic-converter-replacement-cost
Re: [Vo]:A catalytic converter might be a cold fusion cell
Jones Beene wrote: Hmmm... Actually, a few years ago there was indeed a flash of interest in > doing this - using catalytic converters for thermal gain.. > > . . . > Nothing was memorable from this extensive effort IIRC, but these efforts > were generally using H2 instead of D2. > That is an odd choice for Pd. - Jed
