Peter,
There is a provocative analogy of LENR to fission (in the context of the Oklo natural fission site): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor But it is non-obvious, and yet it suggests that there could indeed be a "natural LENR" on Earth. Don't laugh - I am completely serious. Perhaps you were a bit too timid to go there :-) If you take the metaphor of Oklo even further, the place on earth where one would look for a similar anomaly is nickel mines. What would one look for? That part is simple: isotope anomalies. This assumes that nickel LENR is a novel reaction with hydrogen that results in isotopic changes. There are other possibilities to look for - but for now, let's stick with this one. As fate would have it - in doing a cursory search (Bing, instead of Google, nowadays) it turns out that the nickel in most meteorites is "neutron-poor" isotopically compared to natural nickel on earth. However, nickel mines on earth usually have, as their source of rich ore - large and ancient meteorite impact sites. Sudbury in Ontario is a case in point. Yet the nickel there is NOT neutron poor. The authors in the paper below make an assumption the earth's nickel is the baseline standard for isotope distribution. However, if we start from a different premise and assume that millions of years ago, earthly nickel began to slowly change isotopically, due to hydrogen interaction ala LENR then you come to a surprising conclusion. BTW - hydrogen can come from either H2O seepage in mines or from the solar wind. http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2012/pdf/2354.pdf Could earthly nickel have changed slight over the millennia . and meteorites we find from later date actually be the correct baseline? Maybe, but not an ounce of proof for that contention so far - however, the possibility cannot be ignored. That specific scenario for heavier nickel would be that over time, the neutron rich isotopes are transmuted via "virtual neutrons" on earth, but in a novel reaction that does not change the z (to copper, although some of the time it does). Virtual neutrons, in this case, are the result of fractional hydrogen f/H - which is hydrogen going into a deeply redundant ground state where it becomes "energy poor" and then finally is adsorbed as a virtual neutron, not a proton (as in W-L). An example would be 60Ni -> 61Ni but in the sense of a novel reaction, which goes no further. No subsequent beta decay. Of course, the bulk of neutron changes which we know about do involve a later beta decay, but in this case, the f/H probably arrives from the solar wind where it is already "energy-depleted" having given up EUV energy in the solar corona in the way that Randell Mills has suggested. Jones From: Peter Gluck "Is cold fusion natural? http://egooutpeters.blogspot.ro/2012/12/is-cold-fusion-natural-essay-in.html Actually who will care when it will be a genuine energy source? Natural is very popular, cold fusion is only for us but perhaps the question(s) will do some good for solving some problems. Peter -- Dr. Peter Gluck Cluj, Romania http://egooutpeters.blogspot.com
