In one way, this report is shaping up as an amazing piece of oversight - which Levi and the Swedes may have failed to grasp, or at least failed to fully appreciated in its ultimate significance. There could be a shadow over this story which goes back to 1989.
Moreover, do we even need hydrogen at all?
You have to wonder - given the tiny amount of hydrogen at the start, and the
isotopic analysis at the end, if hydrogen was necessary for this reaction.
This looks like a lithium burner.
Perhaps it is basically a new kind of lithium reaction… or maybe it is not
so new.
As mentioned in many prior posts here, Nickel-58 is extremely neutron
deficient. Nickel 58 is the most abundant isotope of element 28, but is
"out-of-place" in the periodic table, being lighter in amu than any stable
cobalt isotope, the element to the left of nickel having one less proton;
and it should be heavier (essentially all cobalt is Co-59). By itself, that
factoid would be somewhat unique - in that it only happens in two other
places in the entire periodic table, where elements routinely increase in
average amu, in step with Z.
So, we have Ni-58 which is is strongly neutron deficient, in the vicinity of
gaseous Li7 which has an anomalous excess – even if the excess is a single
weakly bound neutron, such that the nickel is acting in some ways like a
“neutron sink” for a low energy transfer from Li-7.
If hydrogen is necessary at all, its role could be limited to that of a
transfer mechanism to facilitate the movement of the excess neutron from
lithium to nickel.
Unfortunately, the strong overtone here could relate to non-proliferation
issues which reverberate back to 1989. After all, if helium is seen in any
kind of lithium reaction, when nickel is not present – it could derive from
Li7. At that time in history, P&F using lithium, plus that other dreaded
ingredient (heavy water) may have worried strategists who knew a few things
about lithium which are still not in the public domain.
This is probably not going to be the instant bombshell, or
extremely well-prepared announcement from truly independent scientists that
we had hoped for.
Agreed. I don't think any of us should be pinning all our
hopes on this overturning establishment beliefs, but I think it's a rather
large/important piece of the puzzle, no?
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