I wrote: What is interesting for this particular model (photon transmission through > 1cm of nickel) is that reaction channels (0)-(3), which are the deuteron > capture reactions, are either not detected or barely detected (keep in mind > there was a layer of lead shielding the E-Cat at one point). >
I said "deuteron capture," but I had in mind "deuteron stripping" or "neutron stripping," i.e., a deuteron is forced against a nickel lattice site by a force yet to be identified and the neutron is stripped off, sending the proton flying in the opposite direction with 5-10 MeV of energy. My assumption is that this would happen at or near the surface. In this context, one thought is that the fast protons might fly outward into the interstitial area, perhaps into a mass of protons brought together by the same force that caused the stripping, leading to the immediate thermalization of the energy of the fast proton, as happens when a bullet is shot into water. That will minimize knock-on fusions and spallations. In the aforementioned model for 1cm of nickel, there were 0.15 511 keV photons being picked up by the detector per second (~ 1.5 photons every ten seconds). I suspect this would be below the noise threshold of the detector and would not be considered a detection. Eric
