Hydrogen couln't be essential ?

It's most probably BS (calcium was reduced with aluminum from ceramic vessel used) just because such a transmutation would undoubtedly release way more energy, than the thermite itself.

Quote from Alan Smith

I can confidently state that igniting 2 grams of Thermite produces nothing by way of Gamma/Beta emissions

If the Gromov paper is correct then fast neutrons or 3 keV Auger gammas from 41Ca (half life 102,000 years) decay might be expected. If you didn't measure anything, the explanation must be sought elsewhere. I note that the calcium reported by Gromov is very similar magnitude to the impurity levels. If there had really been an exothermic nuclear reaction producing 0.55% nuclear ashes the explosion would have been fairly catastrophic - equivalent to perhaps hundreds of kg of chemical explosives.

Quote from Hermes

If there had really been an exothermic nuclear reaction producing 0.55% nuclear ashes the explosion would have been fairly catastrophic - equivalent to perhaps hundreds of kg of chemical explosives.

This statement is incorrect and based on missing transmutation knowledge.

http://aflb.ensmp.fr/AFLB-297/aflb297m333a.pdf

There exist many well known LENR transmutation reactions, which just redistribute the nuclear charge.

@Alan Smith,
(wandering somewhat off topic...)
You might have better luck getting X-rays from metallic Li, Na, or K dropped into water. (Probably not "real" gammas).
Probably not LENR, but those Coulomb explosions might generate high enough e- velocities for some Bremsstrahlung.
I don't know if anyone has ever tried detecting X-rays from these reactions.
Maybe if there is enough water and container to safely contain most of the reaction it blocks them?

Quote from Alan Smith

This LENR in Thermite idea is an interesting possibility. I have been playing with it recently- and after reading papers on the subject I just did this '5-minute' experiment. Setting fire to 2 grams of Thermite laced with a small amount of Magnesium powder as ignition aid 20 cms away from a Geiger Counter (Netto Geiger with SBM-20 tube).

I can confidently state that igniting 2 grams of Thermite produces nothing by way of Gamma/Beta emissions, background count remained totally undisturbed as 20cpm (normal for my lab).

Did you check for RF?

Quote from Paradigmnoia

Probably not LENR, but those Coulomb explosions

The Coulomb explosion explanation is very handwavy. My suspicions are with LENR in cases like this one, involving potassium, as well as other alkali metals.

@Eric Walker

I don't feel the same way. The physics of these alkali metal-water reactions are poorly understood, I will agree.
From the video: "1 kg of sodium ~50 moles, 5 000 000 Coulombs in 0.001 second, 5 000 000 000 amps"

http://www.nature.com/nchem/jo…7/n3/full/nchem.2161.html

@Paradigmnoia, this presenter's explanation in particular is one that I find unlikely. But I think the experimental phenomenon he's latched onto is a very interesting one.

An alternative (LENR-ish) proposal: something about the chemical reaction between water and the alkali metal disrupts the electronic environment as the species move all over the place during their rearrangement, creating short-lived transients in electron density. These transients in turn induce EC and beta decay:

• 22Na → ν + 22Ne + 2843 keV (EC)
• 40K → ν + 40Ar + 1504 keV (EC)
• 40K → ν + 40Ca + 1311 keV (β−)

In the case of EC, the colored glow might come from Auger cascades as the electronic structure adapts to the new nucleus. In the case of beta minus decays (40K to 40Ca), I suppose we might have actual Cherenkov radiation.

@Eric Walker,
As I have brought up before, during these primary Coulomb explosions (whether by pulsed femtoseond laser pulses, alkali reactions, etc.), secondary effects such as modifications to the Coulomb "screening functions" could occur. These might easily be missed in all the action.

I asked a long time ago what happens when all this force is being applied mostly in one direction, is there a weakened area left behind, on the other side of an atom?

Quote from Paradigmnoia

I don't feel the same way. The physics of these alkali metal-water reactions are poorly understood, I will agree.
From the video: "1 kg of sodium ~50 moles, 5 000 000 Coulombs in 0.001 second, 5 000 000 000 amps"

Here the non paywall paper version: http://marge.uochb.cas.cz/~jungwirt/paper263.pdf

Coulomb explosions are what powered the Papp engine. Both water and noble gases can form crystals. An electric spark can produce the x-rays that explode those crystals.

The extreme electric currents that result from these Coulomb explosions also produce excess electrons from a LENR reaction. I suspect the same will be true for liquid metal explosions in water. I would look for RF radiation coming out of these Coulomb explosions, a sign that a LENR reaction is underway.

Quote from Wyttenbach

This statement is incorrect and based on missing transmutation knowledge

In making my comment I relied on the authors' conjecture that the underlying nuclear reaction was:-
27Al + 14N --> 41Ca + 21.8 MeV.

However almost any other reaction creating calcium is going to produce explosive quantities of energy. Do you have any alternative proposals showing how significant calcium can be made without explosions?

/* Coulomb explosions are what powered the Papp engine. Both water and noble gases can form crystals. An electric spark can produce the x-rays that explode those crystals. */

IMO there is no experimental evidence for it. Do you have some?

Quote from Zephir_AWT

/* Coulomb explosions are what powered the Papp engine. Both water and noble gases can form crystals. An electric spark can produce the x-rays that explode those crystals. */

IMO there is no experimental evidence for it. Do you have some?

The Russ Gries experiments, check YouTube

Quote from Alan Smith

This LENR in Thermite idea is an interesting possibility. I have been playing with it recently- and after reading papers on the subject I just did this '5-minute' experiment. Setting fire to 2 grams of Thermite laced with a small amount of Magnesium powder as ignition aid 20 cms away from a Geiger Counter (Netto Geiger with SBM-20 tube).

I can confidently state that igniting 2 grams of Thermite produces nothing by way of Gamma/Beta emissions, background count remained totally undisturbed as 20cpm (normal for my lab).

You just some weeks ago point that iron can generate XUV.. But maybe not worth to study.
Btw SBM-20 low energy x-ray sensitivy? I can't find data from energy level where it start counting.

Quote from Hermes

In making my comment I relied on the authors' conjecture that the underlying nuclear reaction was:-
27Al + 14N --> 41Ca + 21.8 MeV.

This reaction is nothing more than a first guess and highly unlikely they only one. If you ignit Thermite then the Oxygen of the aluminium is directly going to iron - nothing more. There mostly is no contact to air, at least not the amount needed for 0.55% Ca (would be 50 times the volume of the whole thermit) Ask the rail construction people how they use it!

An other problem is that lighter material swim on top of the molten iron.

They took samples not contacting the underlaying steel plates. Of course any element contained in the plates below could be washed out and swim on top...

So, the story is just a first try, with an emergency - front runnig paper...

The best thing we could do is: High precision measuring of the whole process and finally write real paper, with a full mass scan of all elements Z between 1..100 of all participating experimental materials.