In reply to James Bowery's message of Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:02:49 -0500: Hi, [snip] >On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 3:39 PM, <mix...@bigpond.com> wrote: > >> In reply to James Bowery's message of Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:56:35 -0500: >> Hi, >> [snip] >> >> I don't think even Jones suggested D => H + n. >> >> >His words: "Neutrons are 'stripped' from the deuterium" >> >> ...and so they are, but only when either the neutron or the proton is >> immediately absorbed by another nucleus. I doubt he intended to imply that >> the >> result of said reaction would be both a free neutron and a free proton. >> IOW at >> least one of the two needs to be absorbed by a target nucleus for this >> reaction >> to occur. You can borrow 2.2 MeV from the Heisenberg bank, but you only >> get a >> *very* short term loan. ;) >> Regards, >> >> Robin van Spaandonk >> >> http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html >> >> >How could such a short-lived neutron could get to the engine block?
..the reaction happens at or in the wall of the engine block. e.g. D + 56Fe => 57Fe + H + 5.4 MeV, or D + 58Fe => 59Fe (radioactive) + H + 4.3 MeV. BTW this is interesting because there is actually only a small amount of 58Fe in natural iron. Adding a neutron to either of the more common isotopes 56Fe or 57Fe yields a stable isotope in both cases. There are of course other elements present in steel in small amounts, and adding neutrons to these can also create radioactive isotopes. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
