Maybe the gamma burst was the culprit?
OTOH "Cygnons" could be Positronium (coupled electron-positron pairs).
Fred
Studies have shown that all proposed transmutation processes to treat RNW using neutron reactions are deficient or marginal at best from the point of view of energy consumption and/or cost. We suggest an alternative approach that has not been considered to date: the transmutation of RNW elements using high-energy photons or gamma rays. The photo-disintegration of RNW may provide an effective way to treat reprocessed waste; waste that has been chemically separated or the residual waste left over after neutron processing. Photo-disintegration is attractive in that any isotope can be transmuted. This approach is now potentially practical because of the development of micropole undulators (MPUs) that allow us to use small storage rings to economically generate photons with gamma-ray energies and to tune these ''gamma rays'' to the peak of the cross-section resonance for various RNW elements. Because the cross sections for all RNW nuclei hav!
e a broad peak with the maximum in the 12-18 MeV range, a single MPU could be used to treat both actinide and fission fragment components of RNW. The goal of this study is to make estimates of the reaction rates and energy efficiency of the transmutation of typical RNW elements using gamma rays to establish whether or not gamma-ray transmutation should be examined as a viable alternative solution to RNW warranting further study.
