At 08:22 AM 10/24/2009, Horace Heffner wrote:
If neutrons are produced in the lattice in an amount corresponding
to He and heat production then they should be readily detectable via
neutron activation of materials in or near the cathode.
One would think. It seems conceivable that there is some mechanism
that results in immediate and contained capture of generated
neutrons. Seems conceivable to someone like me, that is, who knows
not nearly enough to come up with all the reasons either way.
Thermal neutrons are readily detected. See:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_activation_analysis>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_activation_analysis
wherein thermal neutrons, i.e. with kinetic energies of less than
0.5 eV, are used. Notice the extreme sensitivity of Al, Au, Ag, Cl,
Cu, Ca, K, Pt, Ti, and S to neutron activation, all elements
commonly used in CF experiments. It is difficult to imagine that 20
years of experimentation with large amounts of these materials
present would fail to result in the detection of the effects of slow
neutrons in or near the lattice, especially in transmutation
detection experiments in which the cathode is digested. This must
be a common thought in response to the WL claims. There is not
necessarily any emotional content, and certainly emotion is not
necessary, to such a reaction to WL claims.
I haven't read the material Krivit points to yet, but I'm very
interested in the discussion. One of the things I intend to focus on
is the detection of neutrons, the Galileo project was designed for
alpha detection, and only detected neutrons, if it did, by accident,
more or less like what SPAWAR did, when they decided to look at the
backs of detector chips where the alpha radiation didn't penetrate,
and found triple tracks.
Gold is sensitive to neutron activation, but what will hot alphas due
with gold that is less common with silver or palladium, i.e., why is
it reported that neutrons are more readily detected (using CR-39,
looking for triple tracks) with gold substrate rather than other metals?
I'm suspecting the nuclear behavior of gold under alpha bombardment
is responsible for it. Any ideas:
Beryllium is used as a source of neutrons, it emits them under alpha
bombardment. So... how can I incorporate beryllium into a simple
codep cell, where the alphas can reach it while they are still hot?
What if I had a silver cathode, with a layer of beryllium plating,
followed, or not, by gold plating? Any effect? What about a small
piece of beryllium foil suspended near the cathode? Chemical
reactions of beryllium in the electrolyte? What would happen? So much
fun, so little time.
If I get an amplified neutron signal from the presence of beryllium,
it would be a strong sign of hot alphas. This possibility was
suggested to me by a critic of cold fusion, there are a few who
actually *think* about the problem. We need more of those.
What effects are predicted by Widom Larsen? Is neutron activation
predicted, or is that mechanism interdicted in some way by the
theory? Slow neutrons are easy to detect, in fact, because they are
so highly active, being able to penetrate nuclei. I'd think that in a
palladium lattice at 1:1 loading, there would be more neutron
activation of palladium than of deuterium. What would the products be?
Hot neutrons won't be produced by a low-energy process. Hot neutrons
are being reported by SPAWAR, estimated energy, on the order of 10
MeV. So some other process is producing them, either some kind of
fusion or as a byproduct of some kind of fusion or other
energy-yielding nuclear process, and hot alphas, given all the helium
produced, that correlates with the excess heat in the right range,
seem the most likely source of the energy for hot neutrons, given the
very low levels of neutrons found, they would be signs of secondary
reactions. I.e., an alpha signature, and sensitive to the
environment, i.e., what the alphas can hit before they become thermal
and merely ordinary helium.
