The title of the FR post is (annoyingly) misleading. The MFMP team is saying that they are excited about putting a more sensitive gamma ray detector into operation -- not that it has, as of now, detected unambiguous gamma rays.
On Wed, Nov 6, 2013 at 6:30 PM, Kevin O'Malley <[email protected]> wrote: > *MFMP detects GAMMA rays in LENR > experiment*<http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/backroom/3088346/posts> > *Martin Fleischmann Memorial Project ^ > <http://www.freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://www.quantumheat.org/index.php/en/follow/follow-2/347-gamma> > * | 06 November 2013. | Robert Greenyer > > > > *"Well, to put it plain and simple - it would mean that we have a > incontrovertible demonstration of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR)."* > > > > > <http://www.freerepublic.com/%7Ekevmo/> > > Gamma > > on 06 November 2013. The smoking gun of LENR? > > On January the 14th 2011, Rossi and Focardi gave the first public > demonstration of the low temperature E-Cat to a personally invited group. A > short time afterwards, Francesco Celani, who was present at the > demonstration, sent a review for the event to New Energy Times. > > Francesco Celani record of first public E-Cat demonstration in New Energy > Times > > In this article, it is noted that Rossi and Focardi had a twin gamma ray > detector set up in order to detect e+e- annihilation that was expected by > Focardi based on previous experiments. The results from that set up were > not meaningful during the guests time in the room. > > Bob Greenyer was keen to understand more about this event, so in the day > following ICCF-18, he quizzed Francesco on the matter. Here is a fresh > account of that event. > > Francesco was sitting down with other scientists and guests waiting to be > called in for the demonstration, they were 7 – 8m away from E-Cat which was > behind a door in another room. > > Francesco had 2 gamma detectors with him, 1 very cheap and 1 very > expensive battery operated 1.25” NaI(TI) detection range of 25keV to 2000 > keV. > > He notes that the background in Frascatti is normally around 120 because > of local geology, but in Bologna it is 60, Francesco Celani set the > detectors accordingly and the assembled group sat there patiently waiting. > > Suddenly and for about 1 second, both detectors topped out 1000+ counts > PER SECOND and sounded their alarms (they could not show any more). Several > of the invited observers considered literally running from the building as > it was speculated that Rossi might be leveraging a radioactive source in > his experiment. Why such concern? Well, radiation falls off according to > Newtons 1/d^2 law as you can see here. > > Plugging the minimum 1000 counts per second and 8 meters into the formula > would mean that 50cm from the E-Cat, the counts would be over a quarter > million per second - not good! > > However, luckily the momentary signal collapsed and about two minutes > later, Rossi came into the waiting room to invite people in to see the > E-cat saying “the reaction has started”. > > Francesco and the rest of the invited guests then went into the room where > the E-Cat was. Whilst in that room and using the NaI(TI) near the operating > reactor, there was a 50-100% count increase over background which was > erratic. Francesco decided to try and get a spectra from the detector, in > order to understand what might be going on and so he switched mode on the > detector. Rossi however saw what he was doing, got upset and Celani was > told to stop the measurements, which he did. > > In addition, Celani said that he noted a number of gas cylinders in the > room – but that it would only be speculation to say what they were. If > E-Cats do indeed produce high gamma busts prepping for 'switch on' or > elevated emissions during operation, that might explain challenges in > getting domestic certification and the determination to keep below a fixed > cop and using staged cascades of small to big E-Cats to create larger > effective COPs. > > Whatever happened that day, Francesco Celani started investigating surface > modified transition metals with hydrogen the following month. Inverse > Square Law > > To help understand the inverse square law we made this little video. > > Comparing the 1100 counts per minute at 2 cm from source in that video to > being 8m away, gives around 0.007 counts per minute - i.e. not meaningful > contribution to the 25 or so background. Hopefully this gives a sense of > why there was such excitement at the momentary signal in January 14, 2011. > > Celani > > After the end of ICCF-18 conference dinner, Bob found himself in a > conversation opposite Francesco Celani and a prominent government funded > scientist. Celani was told essentially that the levels of excess reported > were basically not significant enough to avoid being dismissed and that > what was needed as solid evidence of LENR was either transmutation or > particle/ray emission. > > Francesco then said, that when he was testing his wire with Deuterium, he > got gamma emissions, the scientist asked if it was explored but Celani said > no because he was looking for excess heat and actually, that experiment > just produced a clear negative result. Martin Fleischmann Memorial Project > (MFMP) > > For the MFMP, this year has largely been about differential experiments, > first the Steel and Glass, then the US dual cells and more recently, the > calibrated dual Celani cells in France. In this latter experiment, the > first of the active wires completed loading and moved into apparent excess > heat after around six days and stayed firmly positive in favour of the > active cell for more than 30 days. > > EU dual differential cells > > At one point, before the powering of the second wire, the active cell > input power was reduced by around 2.5W. The differential dropped to zero, > indicating that it took 2.5 more watts to raise the passive cell to the > same average external temperature. > > Rough calculation assuming that only the actively powered wire is > producing apparent excess - which given that the 280L looked like it was > still loading, was a fair assumption. > > (2.5W / 42.5W) * 100 = 5.9% apparent excess, this is in line with other > experiments we have performed. > > 2.5W *(1 / 0.275g [approximate weight of wire]) = 9.1W/g > > Celani says the wires he is supplying us should show excess of between > 5W/g and 50W/g. This is in that range. > > Putting this in context, in theory 1kg of this wire would yield > approximately 910W. > > But that is not what got us excited! > > The experiment had an annoying leak in the control cell and since the > cells were bridged by a small pipe for pressure equalisation, Mathieu found > he had to re-fill the cells every 48 hours or so. This leak was a bug he > wanted to fix, and indeed, he made the replacement flange, but because the > cells were producing good data, he stopped short of actually doing the > repair. That might be a very important decision! > > Adjacent to the cells he had placed an unshielded geiger counter that > normally registered around 22 counts per minute dropping to 12 and rising > to around 30. In September 2013, he noticed that each time he refilled the > cells, shortly afterwards, the counts leapt up to around 60-90. He waited > for the same process to repeat a few times before informing the team. With > the above knowledge about previous events – the team started to appeal for > a NaI(Tl) and related equipment around the end of September. > > To our great delight, Jean-Paul Biberian supplied an old, but rather > excellent, LARGE, Thallium doped Sodium Iodide detector/photon multiplier - > NaI (Tl). The downside was that the associated electronics for driving it > and analysing the spectrum of gamma energies was broken and not practical > to replace. What to do? Normally this kind of hardware is expensive and we > just did not have the funds... we were starting to feel the pain of many a > scientist the world over, great potential experiment, nearly there, but no > way of seeing it through. > > To be fair, Mathieu had found a detector driver and spectrometry solution > that might be affordable, called Gamma Spectacular, they might just have > got a solution for us. > > Gamma Spectacular website > > Then, as if by magic, Marissa Little from Earthtech, Texas contacted us > and introduced that they were starting to re-visit LENR and had become > aware of our work and was there any way to help us or work together. Well, > we let them know just what was going on and said that the most important > thing they could help us with right now was to help us find some way to > drive our NaI detector. > > Earthtech website > > Working with the extremely knowledgeable Steven Sesselmann from Gamma > Spectacular and Marissa, and a good deal of images over a few weeks, we > came up with a solution, which, amazingly Earthtech offered to purchase, > which they did 30/10/2013. We are very appreciative of this generosity, we > hope that we can make use of everything together in the week starting the > 11/11/2013. > > First we had to see how many M Ohms the detector was, we needed over 15 > and we got 2! - you can see us doing this in these images:- > > We also discovered it had a ‘C’ type High Tension connection and a BNC > signal out and gain potentiometer. > > Since > > in modern detectors, Safe High Voltage (SHV) connectors are used in place > of the ‘C’ type connectors, we did not need the gain adjustment and the > resistance was way too low, > > it was decided by all parties that it would be best to replace the whole > internal electronics so that they would play nice with the GS2000 Pro, so > Mathieu prepared the detector for when we would receive the new internals. > > Defkalion > > In Defkalion’s latest paper with Dr Yeong E. Kim, they have this to say > about their observation on gammas. > > 3.2 Radiation measurements > > As shown in Fig. 4, no gamma rays outside the energy range of 50 keV–300 > keV have been observed from the experiments with the Hyperion R-5 reactor > (data are from iso-parabolic calorimeter experiment carried out on May 6, > 2013). > > The original paper can be found here Celani - again > > So we wanted to experiment to see if we could re-create what Mathieu had > seen. Mathieu had become less committed to the events as the experiment > went on as it did not appear that they were occurring at the higher > temperatures with both wires functioning. > > Regardless, we therefore called Francesco Celani this week (first on Tue > 29/10/2013), a good number of times, about his comments at ICCF-18 and he > provided additional information. Essentially, the wire had previously been > loaded with H2 and he had attempted to deload it by applying power under > vacuum. He then filled the cell with Deuterium and started to raise the > temperature. > > At first there was nothing, but as the mean internal temperature went over > around 100ºC, there started to be a near doubling of the background gamma > count. They were alarmed, but even though significant, it was not at a > level to be of great concern. This continued until the cell internal mean > temperature passed through around 160ºC whereafter there was no significant > signal. For about 10 minutes, during this raising temperature period, there > was the increased gammas and then nothing. Other than Francesco, there were > two observers in the room that witnessed the event. As said before, the > Deuterium experiment did not seem to produce excess and so was not pursued. > > From his paper: > > 23.) We observed, for the first time in our experimentation with such kind > of materials, some X (and/or gamma emission), coming-out from the reactor > during the increasing of the temperature from about 100°C to 160°C. We used > a NaI(Tl) detector, energy range 25-2000keV used as counter (safety > purposes), not spectrometer. Total time of such emission was about 600s and > clearly detectable, burst like. > > 24.) About thermal anomalies, we observed, very surprising, that the > response was endothermic, not esothermic. The second day the system crossed > the zero line and later become clearly eso-thermic. Similar effects were > reported also by A. Takahashi and A. Kitamura. > > 25.) After about 350000s from the beginning of D2 intake the temperature > abruptly increased and the wire was broken. We observed that the pressure > decreased, because some problems to the reactor gas tight, but at times of > 80000s before. The SEM observations showed fusion of a large piece of wire. > The shape was like a ball. Further analyses are in progress. > > It occurred to us that this temperature dependence, having been pointed to > it, may be very significant. Mathieu had already seen no extra gammas at > higher temperature - could this explain that? Initial experiment to verify > gamma emissions > > Despite Mathieu fearing that the wires were toasted (the cells had been > running at 70W for some days and were not producing as much excess as > before), we decided to take the wires down to around 150ºC and try to > recreate what was apparently happening previously and capture it on camera. > > Not amazingly conclusive, but the background was around 12-28 and the > gamma pulse shortly after the recharge pushed the PER MINUTE average to > 40+, meaning a much higher per second pulse. We are looking forward to > having the ability to have much more sensitive equipment that can give per > second readings and a gamma spectra also. Lead well > > Because the NaI will be SO much more sensitive than the geiger counter - > we will need to shield it in 5cm of lead on all sides except the one that > will face the reactor. Maybe make it from 2 concentric cylinders filled > with lead… however, we need the lead. > > Has anyone in France got a load of Lead they could drive over to Mathieu > with? If they have, who fancies casting a bit of lead shielding? > Possibilities to explore Is it really happening? > > We need to measure it repeatedly and with a better resolution. We will > strive to measure with a Geiger-Muller counter in more controlled > conditions, possibly lead shielding, and with more sensitive NaI detectors. > We will try to look for total count rates and also the gamma spectrum > measurement. Finally, we will try to make a new apparatus that brings a > higher density of wire nearer to the detector. If it is happening, what is > it related to? > > Is it being caused by pressure shock? - Test at various pressure levels > and step sizes. Pre-heat incoming gas to same temp as gas in cell so as to > remove thermal shock. Thermal shock from the cool incoming gas? - Test with > some other cool gas like Helium. Try chilling the incoming gas more. > Hydrogen flux into the wire? - Does a slow pressure rise work almost as > well as a rapid one? Fresh deuterium in new gas? - Add a little > supplemental Deuterium and see if the gamma signal gets higher. > > The EU team can explore: > > Lower temps and pressures to a few bars. Test with Helium to see if it is > a cool gas thing He has more wires on the way to try it again, if > necessary, as the September/October experiment wires are not so active > after being run at 70W The huge NaI(Tl) detector and electronics en-route > will allow for much better > > The US team can explore: > > Putting our Geiger counter and NaI gamma detector near our V1.3 cell and > try adding gas. We currently have two loaded wires in the active cell to > work with. Try adding Deuterium in small amounts. We currently have some > heavy water and an electrolysis unit to make some gas. New cell at HUG to > test this - Replicate our heavy duty aluminum cell that we have a camera > on, but with a full size glass window on the end so we can put it directly > up against the Ortech NaI detector face. Inside this cell, we put several > pieces of wires wrapped around mica frames, and then we can stack several > of those frames all within 5 cm, or so, of the face of the NaI detector. > > What is the significance? > > So why should we be excited at the prospect of seeing controllable gamma > emissions from our experiments? Well, to put it plain and simple - it would > mean that we have a incontrovertible demonstration of Low Energy Nuclear > Reactions (LENR). > > Additionally, knowing the energies of any Gamma emissions would help > determine the underlying process and help indicate what power can be > achieved by singular events and overall potential yield. Lastly, it will > help dictate paths for material science, control, stimulation and safe > operation that will take the technology forward. Discussion > > In the video below, which lasts for around 30 mins, Bob and Mathieu > discuss what led up to the decision to follow the evidence and the > implications. >
