Axil Axil <[email protected]> wrote: > > Chemically Assisted Transmutation Reaction (CATR) expert: Yes, certain > chemical reactions are known to produce tritium. Those reactions should be > regulated by the NRC or band. Those reactions use the hydrogen isotope > deuterium.
A chemical reaction cannot produce tritium. That is a transmutation; a change to the nucleus. The definition of chemistry is a reaction limited to the electrons. That is the present definition, anyway. "Chemical transmutation" is a contradiction of terms, like "a living corpse" or "a solid gas." If cold fusion with deuterium can cause transmutations with products such as tritium, then it stands to reason that cold fusion with hydrogen might also cause transmutations. There is already experimental evidence that it can cause bursts of neutrons. There is no way -- absolutely, positively, no way on God's green earth -- that experts testifying before Congress any time in the next decade will claim that the theory is settled, and we know for sure this is a benign chemical effect that should not be under the purview of the NRC or other nuclear regulators. That question can only be settled after thousands of researchers replicate the effect and assess it in far greater detail than anyone has done until now. It cannot be settled until the theorists reach some sort of consensus about the nature of the reaction. They need a working model, if not a theory. We are far from that. Probably hundreds of millions of dollars away from that, if not billions. The physics establishment is not going to throw away the definitions of chemistry versus nuclear physics, and accept unconditionally that there is such a thing as "chemical transmutation," and that we should not worry about the effects of that mysterious new phenomenon. It should not accept that! It would be the height of irresponsibility for physicists to accept this. We know practically nothing about cold fusion. The research has barely begun. As I said at ICCF17, in the whole history of the field, we have spent roughly as much money as people spend on semiconductor R&D *in a single day*. I repeat: by the standards of industrial R&D, cold fusion is one day old. - Jed
