From: Edmund Storms
Here is the mass change D = 2.014101778 H= 1.00727647 n= 1.0086649 The gain in mass is D-n= p You are making an incorrect assumption. The O-P effect (i.e. "stripping") is not thermonuclear, it is quantum mechanical - in effect a tunneling reaction. Quantum tunneling is one of Oppenheimer's claims to fame. OK Jones, then were does the mass come from? No matter what you call the process, the energy MUST be conserved. This reaction requires energy be added to create the mass of the product. Where does this energy come from? Yes, mass-energy is conserved but we are talking about deuterium being converted into something else (tritium or He3)- so there is NOT necessarily a non-conserved mass of anything, since there is always the neutrino "wild card". That, essentially, is the crux of your incorrect assumption. In the Fusor, the transmuted nucleus is left in an energy state as if it had fused with a neutron of negative kinetic energy, so there far less mass change than the thermonuclear reaction. The Fusor can be called "warm fusion" not hot, since the threshold energy for thermonuclear reaction is never attained. The only issue here is how the barrier is overcome, because once this happens, energy is created by the normal hot fusion reaction, i.e. the combined nucleus fragments into the observed particles which includes neutrons. That is what you seem to be missing in all of this. It is not hot fusion but CoE does apply. In the O-P reaction, the Coulomb barrier is overcome when two deuterons approach each other with the neutron end of each facing the other - i.e. being geometrically ahead of the proton end. The 1.7 MeV barrier is effectively lowered to about 10 keV. Why suggest some magic condition like negative energy. Robert Oppenheimer and Melba Philips suggested this. Who am I, or you, to suggest otherwise? The process is very simple. The two D are given enough energy to surmount the barrier. The Fusor simply does this in an efficient way. No, the Fusor never gets close to doing this at all, without QM. The energy to surmount the barrier is reduced by a similar amount to the deficit in net energy transfer. Once again, we appear to be seeing experts in one field who do not understand the full implications of QM and nuclear tunneling - and refuse to believe that energy on the quantum scale can be "borrowed" for a few femtoseconds before it is repaid. There is no 1.7 MeV threshold and there is corresponding mass change. In QM tunneling, the energy barrier for fusion is reduced and the excess energy is likewise reduced. Jones
