To get a valid overview of the entire transmutation process, the testers must look at a complete sample of the fuel, not just a few nickel particles. There could be other nuclear processes going on away from the nickel particles. The testers have made an assumption that the reaction must be local to the nickel micro-particles. This is a bad assumption and could lead to a misrepresentation of the transmutation results.
On Wed, Oct 8, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> wrote: > Axil Axil <[email protected]> wrote: > > The efficiency of uranium pellets is only about 4% because of the >> deterioration of the zirconium cladding that encloses the uranium. >> > > That is true. So that means 4% of 29% of the pellet would be used up > (transmuted). That's ~1%. A pellet weighs "~ 7 g total, with ~ 0.3 g > U-235." > > http://epsc221.wustl.edu/Lectures/221L36.pdf > > So I guess that's about 3 mg of transmuted uranium? That's a lot of > material. It would dead simple to find that much in an analysis. > > - Jed > >
