In reply to Axil Axil's message of Thu, 9 Oct 2014 23:04:12 -0400: Hi, [snip] >don't you remember when Rossi said... > >He said that he tested a number of "secret sauce" element which all >basically worked. > >Lithium is just one of a number of elements that do basically the same >thing. > >Lithium is not unique. How does a family of element doing the secret sauce >function fit into your new theories?
The pair combination is important. When Li is used as neutron source, the target atom needs to be an element near the top of the binding energy curve so that the energy released by neutron addition is maximal because it takes 7.2 MeV to release the neutron from Lithium. It is nice to have a series of neutron additions that stops on a stable isotope (no radioactive by products). However if D is used as neutron source, then just about anything would serve as a target, and thus the additions wouldn't stop. That would be a dirtier reaction. Beryllium could also serve as neutron source, but there isn't much point, because it would be just about as "dirty" as D, and is much scarcer than Lithium. C13 might make an interesting replacement for the Lithium, as might Si29, if it works at all. If so, then it is far more abundant than any of the others[1], and like Li should allow clean reactions:- 29Si+58Ni => 59Ni + 28Si + 0.526 MeV 29Si+59Ni => 60Ni + 28Si + 2.914 MeV This series stops at 60Ni. Though the total energy release is not as large as with Lithium, the vastly greater abundance of Si29 could make this a very interesting reaction. Furthermore the "low" energy of the reactants[2] would likely make this reaction even cleaner than the Lithium reactions. Of course any D in the H is going to make it dirtier, so it might be a good idea to remove that first. [1] There is about 1000 times more Si29 than Lithium in the crust (Si29 is about 5% of all Silicon), and of course Ni58 is the most common Nickel isotope (2/3). [2] Si28 in the second reaction would have kinetic energy of 2.914*60/(28+60)= 1.99 MeV (not even enough to strip neutrons from D, so no neutron spallation). Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
