Robin,
>The other would be 62Ni + (hy) --> 63Cu. RvS: The latter reaction is far less likely, because the Coulomb barrier is much higher for Ni than for Na. Yes. That is the traditional viewpoint for a charged particle but if the Hy is neutral, up until it gets within range of the strong force, then essentially the Coulomb barrier does not figure in. RvS: Furthermore, if the latter were happening, then one would also expect to get a few radioactive Cu isotopes forming, based on reactions with the other (more abundant) stable Ni isotopes, e.g. That is true unless there was something else going-on. IOW in addition to the Hy being essentially neutral, one would also need to find a self-screening mechanism on the receiving-end of things. A mechanism which only permitted transmutation which resulted in the lowest possible energy release would work; but no, there are no such mechanisms which I am aware of to use for this. Catch-22. All of this only matters if some copper is found in the residue from spent catalyst, and I agree that it with nickel it is a shot-in-the-dark, which was basically concocted from the perspective of "what could have happened here, of the LENR variety - which would not have been easily detected, and which is slightly more palatable than suggesting a 218 eV effective input" But yes - I think that the sodium to magnesium route is where things would be more likely to be happening, and once again - why not at least make the minimum effort to look for magesium? Jones
