Correction:
Deuteron disintegration which supplies about 1 GeV per nucleon is about 167
times more energy dense than nuclear fusion of deuterium to helium. Assumption:
1 GeV per nucleon vs 24 MeV per 4 nucleons (in the He-4 nucleus).
However, a sizeable percentage of that disintegration energy will disappear as
neutrinos, and thus the usable energy is still a mystery. The bad news for
LENR: If the muon pathway is favored, as seems to be the case from Holmlid’s
studies, then most of the excess energy will indeed disappear as neutrinos.
The good news for LENR is that even if 90% of the energy disappears, the
fraction which remains is about 16.7 times more energetic than fusion of
deuterium to helium. And if 99% disappears as neutrinos – the reaction is still
more energetic than what is expected in palladium D+D fusion to helium, and yet
could be easily confused with that reaction… EXCEPT there would be little
helium detected (the occasional alpha particle).
