MFMP: 18 steps to LENR excess heat (BasE-Cat recipe)

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It doesn't matter if the primary spectrum is gamma because by the time it gets to the outside of the reactor it will be gamma. That would be enough to excite the characteristic x-ray of the tungsten.

Maybe, but looking for second order effects -- gammas from bremsstrahlung in light metals producing characteristic x-rays from tungsten -- would be far down in intensity. But if the tungsten is present in comparable amount with other metals, then the characteristic x-rays will have intensity similar to the bremsstrahlung gammas, or in any case, much higher than the 2nd order x-rays.

Quote from BobHiggins

It doesn't matter if the primary spectrum is gamma because by the time it gets to the outside of the reactor it will be gamma. That would be enough to excite the characteristic x-ray of the tungsten.

I hope you will include tungsten within the core, exposed to the hydrogen and with current running through it (i.e., replace the kanthal with tungsten).

Quote from BobHiggins

but we need additional equipment for detecting these characteristic x-ray lines that are all below 20keV.

Note that 20 keV photons will be attenuated by some materials, making them potentially difficult to detect.

Some relevant Vortex posts:

• COP of 1.2 close to the limits of the Glowstick
• How the temperature measurements were taken
• Experimental uncertainty in heat estimated around 10-20 percent
• About the radiation measurements
• About the announcement

I'm routing the links through goo.gl because this forum software hates Vortex links.

Here is a relevant note, shared with the permission of a commenter who wishes to remain unnamed:

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I applaud their effort but...

While suggestive of something happening, the peak at 80KeV looks like background that is typically observed. I have lots of examples of this. Only if the appearance was correlated with heat AND not an artifact of heating the NaI detector, would it be really exciting. In our case, I thought there was some correlation but eventually concluded that the radiation was an artifact. I would need to see their data in their case to see the correlation.

The heat curves are also suggestive but not distinct because the system likely changed somehow in emission on the active side. Look at the excursions back to lower temperatures and see that the active does not return back to the original point. If you have gases evolved/removed during a reaction, then the conductivity changes and the heat redistribution changes.

I would recommend a different approach of heating inside an oven (basically what we did with gas loading) and seeing if the vessel is warmer than the ambient oven temperature. That would be definitive. However, there is speculation (by us and eventually by others) that Rossi works by stimulating the Ni with RF generated from controlling the heater. Thus in an oven, you would have a null as this stimulation would be absent. Some work was done with an oven (actually a tube furnace) by others and they saw nothing. We did lots of heating but only to 450C and no LAH as this was not part of the recipe back then. Depends on if you believe Rossi on if further work is warranted. If you want to go the oven route, dental ovens are available used and go to the appropriate temperatures. Pt/Rh thermal couples would be suggested as anything else will cause more problems.

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Here is my theory...

The surface plasmon polariton (SPP) is first born out of concentrated infrared photons, but it gets to a stage where it can extract nuclear binding energy out of the nucleus. That energy is stored and downshifted through FANO resonance in a soliton until the SPP decays whereupon its EMF energy content now in the XUV and X-ray range is released to the far field.

I have been saying for years now that a cold reactor will cause gamma radiation. IMHO, this is due to the failure to form a Bose condensate among many Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPP)s. Lack of sufficient polariton pumping allows the SPP to initiate the LENR reaction, but not enough thermal pumping to create a bose condensate among the SPPs to spread the radiation around to thermalize or downshift gamma level radiation through super-absorption among many SPPs.

Low temperature means many SPP are working alone thereby creating x-rays because no downshifting is possible.

High temperatures means many SPPs working together in a BEC to share energy throughout the SPP ensemble through super-absorption.

SPP pumping is similar to laser pumping
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_pumping

Until the SPP pumping gets to an inversion condition, a SPP bose condensate cannot be formed.

Weak pumping means no laser beam is produced.

Usually, the x-xay stage lasts only a few seconds during power ramp at up startup or on power ramp down during shutdown when the reactor is cold or is getting cold.

The transition from LENR to LENR+ happens when the SPPs form on the metalized hydrogen(HRM) which amplifies their catalytic power. HRM is metastable. The more energy accumulated in the HRM, the longer lived the HRM are.

Quote from joshua cude

eros wrote:

Quote: “ Lead (Pb) inside reactor is not good idea. It may go fission with deuterons.”

Could you justify that. Lead is not fissile or fissionable with or without deuterons, as far as I know. But if it did fission, so much the better.…

I have not done calculations yet, but I give educated guess that lead may support fission chain reaction in molten Li metal. Some free neutrons max 6.
Other heavy elements may do also, Bi210 maybe, U238 sure (8 free neutrons)

I am surprised no one is discussing this effect from Freethinker considering the fanfare from the MFMP.
He was way ahead in the low gamma detection.
The operation similarities may help move this effect along to some sort of resolution, or corroboration.

Freethinker's replication attempts

Freethinker's report: https://docs.google.com/docume…TKLPEhT8/edit?usp=sharing

I was hoping Freethinker was going to pop in at some point, and comment on this gamma subject.
Are you out there?

Notably the main differences from previous runs where he didn't notice gamma emission increases were that pressure was reduced to a lower level and that the Ni powder was also baked in air for 2 hours at mild temperatures.

The reactor was also enclosed in alumina bricks, but I think this was also the case in earlier runs.

I wonder if has been busy writing up his Nobel paper, cleaning up the protocol, and now everyone is clambering all over the idea...

Well done guys. They did a great job. And finally heated up to 1200+ degrees!
Many times I wrote about high temperatures. Those who heats - goes into the category of successful replicators.

The reaction occurs at a lower temperature, but not always. And at 1200-1350 almost always starts. At least I was.

Case headway.

The 18 step process calls out a reduction step but does not provide any details. A literature search turned up a very relevant paper that describes the kinetics of NiO reduction as a function of temperature. The most important point is that there exists a critical temperature, below which reduction of NiO occurs slowly and is incomplete. Above this critical temperature (1173 K) reduction occurs in a matter of seconds and is complete. The article goes on to say that reduction at a high temperature results in a very fine, porous surface. See the following reference for details: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b04313

Quote from Paradigmnoia

Freethinker's report: docs.google.com/document/d/13X…TKLPEhT8/edit?usp=sharing

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Ni powder was also baked in air for 2 hours at mild temperatures.

Hello I think baking make some oxides that make fractures. Then H2 reduce baked Ni (200-400C etc ~1bar).
After reducing clean surface make Li vapour to coat all/everywhere (even dummy fuel (Btw Al is real fuel not dummy) in
some experiments) Ni particles.
Li vapor deposition is easier in vacuum.
Then add H2 pressure (̃10bar), keep where Li is molten. Theory says low temp is more efficient for fusion, but diffusin etc is
done faster in hotter.
It may need stimulus, try some lines found Rydberg formulas is my guess..
Some publication say ~500C ~1450nm may work..

Quote from s_grey

The reaction occurs at a lower temperature, but not always. And at 1200-1350 almost always starts. At least I was.

You got Li vapour in 1350C in 1atm to coat some of your Ni particles.
This temp in 1atm is near max posible, because hotter boil Li away and then it stop.
Do Li deposition in vacuum then max H2 pressure, keep only redhot or slight lower to keep it going longtime.

Quote from jeff

the kinetics of NiO reduction as a function of temperature. The most important point is that there exists a critical temperature, below which
reduction of NiO occurs slowly and is incomplete. Above this critical temperature (1173 K) reduction occurs in a matter of seconds and is complete.

Ouh, you maybe right. It may be important. I have no idea is it important for LENR to keep lower than curie points or higher. Some test say success
in lower reduction temp. But is there tests done with higher temp reduction step?

@eros
There was not lithium. It does not recover from the oxide and hydride. Even if by some miracle is going to happen - instantaneously reacts with water vapor. Hydrogen is not dry. Sodium chloride is bad dryer.

The paper referenced previously is relevant to the NiO reduction step, which is performed prior to both the Ni hydrogenation and mixing with LiAlH/Li. Its purpose is to remove any oxides and subsequently evolved water vapor. I performed the reduction step by repeatedly introducing H2, heating to 1100C for 30 seconds, applying vacuum, and refilling with H2. The oxide layer is probably no more than a few tens of nm thick, so there is not that much oxide to remove.

The next step is hydrogenation of the Ni. This step is implicitly called out in the Parkhomov replication, where he uses the term hydrogenated Ni. I would be interested if anyone else is of the same opinion concerning Parkhomov's protocol, ie, that the Ni is hydrogenated before mixing with LiAlH4 and being loaded in the cell.

@jeff: if the process can be used for for obtaining porous (i.e. catalytic, skeletal) nickel powder, it is useful. Performing several oxidation-reduction cycles is routinely employed for obtaining catalytic surfaces or even "activating" fresh catalysts.

I wasn't aware that this could be efficiently performed by reducing NiO at much higher temperatures than normal (1500K).

Given that Nickel metal isn't supposed to retain much hydrogen at room temperature and pressure, it is quite possible that the so-called hydrogenation step is mostly needed for obtaining a porous surface/bulk geometry. If this is the case, then there certainly are better ways for doing this step than gently heating Ni powder at 200°C or so in air.

Here a cost free link to the suggested paper

https://engineering.nd.edu/por…ural-transformations/view