Over twenty years ago (in the previous century) there was a flurry of
nickel experiments and papers from India, Italy and Japan which were
often simply called the "Piantelli experiments." Piantelli then moved on
to other things and their importance has been forgotten.
Most of the papers are on the LENR-CANR site. The gist of them is that
evidence for tritium generation or the soft x-rays associated with
tritium beta decay can be detected on an UNPOWERED catalyst, simply
exposed to hydrogen flow. Basically, "Self-heated Nickel Wires" are
subjected To Hydrogen Gas Absroption/Desorption Cycles, and "impossible"
radiation is seen. The radiation is typical of the low end of beta
decay. Since a detector can be moved in very close when no heavy reactor
is needed, it is possible to see radiation in the range of 10 keV and
less. The sample can be presented in a thin plastic tube or straw since
even glass can shield this level of radiation. Yet, make no mistake - it
is impossible radiation and should never be there.
This radiation finding, in retrospect is hugely overlooked, and
especially being the result of an unpowered experiment - it should have
been proof-positive to the Establishment for LENR along with Claytor's
detection of tritium, but alas - there were a few null US replication
attempts and the focus was not taken to the next logical level. That
would have been to test alloys of nickel and look for improvement.
Everyone wanted to see excess heat back then and radiation was ignored.
The revival of this type of basic experiment is long overdue. Hats-off
to Alan for taking the initiative on this, especially after the
disappointment of a trip to Europe where Me356 failed to verify his claims.
Alan has a good setup for radiation detection and could see success in
several different ways without looking for thermal gain.
AlanG wrote:
Nickel and Silver are mutually insoluble (or only with great
difficulty) as has been pointed out. Following Jones' original post,
I'm preparing a simple experiment to test "mechanical alloying". I
will ball-mill ~2 um powders of the two metals for several hundred
hours, using 3/8" tungsten carbide balls for media. SEM/EDS will be
used to examine the resulting mixture.
If the results appear to be successful, a further test will be done by
exposing the amalgam to flowing hydrogen at various temperatures,
looking for radiation as a signature of nuclear activity. Advice and
suggestions for this test are welcome.
AlanG
