On Sat, Jun 15, 2013 at 1:08 PM, Edmund Storms <stor...@ix.netcom.com>wrote:
Tritium is made by gas discharge and gas loading where no lithium or Na is > present. The rate is sensitive to the H/D ratio and to the concentration of > hydrogen isotope in the material. > According to Thomas Passell, lithium was present as an impurity in nearly all palladium samples he assayed using TOF-SIMS in connection with a 2003 study [1]. Also interesting is the fact that the 7Li/6Li ratios were highly skewed towards 7Li in some assays. So I don't think lithium can be ruled out as a source of tritium on the basis of gas discharge rather than LiOD or LiOH electrolysis. The H/D ratio would also be pertinent to whether the 6Li(d,t)5Li reaction was taking place. Eric [1] http://iccf9.global.tsinghua.edu.cn/4effort/5nuclear/PassellTransmutation.pdf