Yes, my hypothesis is that the reactor tube was not empty when given to the Lugano team to test - it had been pre-loaded with 62Ni. They did their dummy tests with the inert 62Ni by itself (and no H2). When it came time for Rossi to add the "fuel" powder, a sample of what he was putting in was taken for analysis as the "fuel". But, what Rossi put in was not the whole fuel - only some LAH and some natural Ni to obscure the analysis. When the ash was analyzed, it was a mix of a large amount of 62Ni pre-loaded + a smaller amount of natural Ni loaded as powder by Rossi after the dummy test. In the ash analysis, there was still 0.3% of 58Ni, probably from the free "fuel" powder he added after the dummy test. However, in my hypothesis, the ash particles tested were mostly comprised of the original 62Ni that was pre-loaded into the reactor with a small amount of Ni that was added when Rossi added the powder fuel.
The ICP-MS and AES only tested the particles that were sampled from Rossi's powder fuel before he added it to the reactor, and then the particles that were shaken loose from the sintered mass of ash in the reactor after the experiment. The ICP-MS analysis begins with chemical digestion of a few small particles, I think in ultra-pure nitric acid. This acid with the dissolved metals is injected into the spectrometer. ICP-MS only tests the average composition of the digested particles in the acid. ICP-MS does not analyze the materials while still in the reactor like some sort of MRI. AES is an optical emission spectrum measurement on the excited plasma that feeds the mass spectrometer in the ICP machine - testing the same digested particles. On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 8:38 PM, Eric Walker <eric.wal...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 8:48 PM, Bob Higgins <rj.bob.higg...@gmail.com> > wrote > > Just to make sure I understand your hypothesis -- 62Ni is added prior to > the blank runs, before the natural-ratio nickel fuel was added. It is then > present during the blank runs and doesn't do anything, because by > hypothesis it is presumed to be inert. Then just prior to the live run the > natural-ratio nickel is added, sampled and measured. And then the test > proceeds. After the test has been concluded, several of the nickel > isotopes are found to have been consumed, leaving only 62Ni as the > residue. Have I understood this correctly? > > In this scenario, it seems that nickel is still active, whereas it is not, > as far as we can tell, in the other experimenter's (shorter) tests. > > Also, if the 62Ni was present in Lugano prior to the start of the live > run, why was it not detected in the ICP-MS and ICP-AES analyses? (I do > note that the amount was slightly above the nickel standard that was used.) > > Eric > >
