Posts by scuromio

Yes, Thorium is in fact optionally included in W welding electrodes. It does in fact undergo radioactive decay. I have measured the radioactivity myself with a geiger counter held close to the W + Th rod.

This thread is about laboratory techniques of all kinds. I have observed by actual practice that silver soldering goes far easier if the surfaces to be joined are first rubbed with a piece of silver. I think what happens is that the silver penetrates any oxide coating and adheres as a monomolecular layer on the brass, copper, or stainless steel etc. Anyway, it works. It is necessary to rub fairly hard in order to penetrate the oxide coating. Then apply flux, heat and silver solder alloy.

Paradigmnoia, it is widely believed that it is transition metals that are LENR active due to the partially empty electron shell interior to the atom. That limits choices of nuclear mass.

I have always assumed that the entire H atom inserts itself into the empty shell. If so, it would be closer to the nucleus and more available for a nuclear reaction.

Nonetheless, there is (to me) a mystery here. It is established by experiments that an entire atom can experience quantum wave interference in a classic double slit experiment. Therefore the atom is acting like a quantum integral whole. Nonethess, it is also often thought that an entire atom such as a transiton metal simply treats "foreign" electrons as one of its own assembly without distinction between its native electrons and a newly induced electron. Thus we end up with a conundrum: if an H atom is actually inserted into an empty shell, is it behaving as a quantum whole for the individual atom, or is its identity dissolved into its individual electron-proton components.

I don't know the answer to this, but, it obviously has a profound effect upon the theory of LENR.

Yes, Prof. Ekstrom. It is also possible that me356 dangerous experience with high neutron flux was caused by thorium content of a tungsten welding rod. Welding rods are available in 0%, 1/2%, 1% and 2% Thorium. It is entirely possible that the neutron flux in the me 356 experiment could be avoided by using a W rod with no Th .

BTW, monazite frequently contains rare earths.

My comment above was directed at the danger of using unpurified monazite. Monazite is a phosphate of of several things, including principly Thorium. It is an additional, often present, contaminant that I view as the danger when transmuted by neutrons. Although I might use thoriated tungsten in some experiments, me356 experiments portend danger in doing so. I will probably cover the electrode feedthroughs with a nickel cap and later titanium and last of all thorium. Niobium looks interesting since it has the highest hydrogen permeability of all the metals. Aluminum has one of the lowest permeabilities to hydrogen.

Thorium has other additional utility in additional to its nuclear properties. Thorium oxide is highly temperature resistant. Even more important, the oxide is a prolific emitter of electrons. Thoriated tungsten filaments for vacuum tubes are in wide use. Probably most magnetrons use them. The reason that dielectrics (such as thorium oxide) are such prolific electron emitters is that the absence of a highly conducting metal surface means that there is no induced "mirror charge" in the metal as the electron tries to leave. This means that energy required to leave the surface, called the "work function", is considerably lower than for a metal. The electron current that leaves is exponentially dependent upon the temperature divided by the work function. That exponential dependence means that oxide electron emitters can emit vastly more electron current. Reference: http://rspa.royalsocietypublis…prsa/119/781/173.full.pdf

As for alpha emission, it has such a low penetrating ability, that only the top few thousands of an inch of an electrode actually contribute to the observed spontaneous radioactivity. All deeper alpha emissions are absorbed by the tungsten itself. Note that the alpha emission is a different thing than the electron emission (which is prolific).

Most of this you learn in undergraduate physics, with more learned in graduate studies.

Here is a useful laboratory technique: do NOT use monazite as a means of activating the LENR reactor. Monazites vary a lot in their content, but almost all of them contain an impurity that will transmute to something you really don't want to have around your delicate biological body.

If you want to use alpha particle activation, it would be safer to use thoriated tungsten welding rods. They are available in up to 2% Th. If that turns out to be relevant to igniting your reactor, withdraw the thoriated rod after ignition. Thorium and tungsten also create nasty transmutation products. That is why I'm including a control rod tube into my shielding design. I'm just going to drill a 1/2" hole in the shield outer wall, weld in a 1/2 steel tube of sufficient length to reach the center reactor core, then insert a 5/16" rod for mechanical control of anything.

I have no objections to removal of the thread.

After the World Trade Center collapse , a glowing big hunk of supposed steel was seen among the wreckage. I don't recall how long it was glowing hot, but I seem to recall it was around 16 days. You can look it up. This kind of behavior is totally abnormal.

Like any occupied office building, lots of stuff was in it. Those would include laptop computers with lithium batteries, high nickel alloys such as from coffee pots or restaurant ware. Organic materials with hydrogen were plentiful from the aircraft fuel. Where to get free hydrogen and incorporate it into molten steel is a mystery. Hydrogen is the only missing ingredient for LENR and it might not have been missing.

It is usually not a good idea to put socially controversial subjects into a technical forum. I have done so anyway, because it plausibly could have been an example of LENR.

Everyone please comment, but let's avoid all the conspiracy stuff. Let's stick to the actual technical environment of the 9-11 event.

Hank, it is easy for almost anyone to think of a variety of reasons he might want to either delay or remain secretive. Protecting inexperienced experimenters is one, delay pending the devising a method that avoids the worse radiation hazards is another, possible rewards for his intense efforts, military issues, .... the list goes on. me356 has already given us a lot of hints about how he succeeded. I believe I can now replicate his method using those hints. For all the foregoing reasons and more, I won't disclose that until I'm ready. At this point, the world already owes a great debt to me356. I heartily congratulate him.

Contrary evidence to the gear theory would be a demonstration of LENR where no three phase is used. I doubt that me356 is using it, but only he can say.

Triggering LENR in many experiments seems to be related to change in almost anything, but, most notably, change in pressure. Preferably a sudden drop in pressure after having first put hydrogen into the material.

David and also Simeon Hein, thank you for posting this interesting theory. One very peripheral hint that it could be true is that Rossi is said to use three-phase power. Three phase power is, of course, perfect for turning rotors. Therefore it is conceivable that the large particles (gears) are rotated by the three phase and that then turns the small "gears" at a very fast rate. Of course, this connection with Rossi is very hazy and might be irrelevant. It does seem worthwhile for people to keep this gear theory in mind for possible exploration.

All in all, I think the gear theory is not most likely explanation for LENR. I have a different theory that I'm not going to waste time discussing until I get some more important things done.

It is universally known that we humankind do not yet have a complete theory of physics. A simple example of this is quantum entanglement. Although quantum mechanics can describe the effects quite well, the explanation for "spooky action at a distance" remains speculative. Most people assume extra dimensions. There are other explanations too. We don't know.

Anyway, it is best to confine theory to a different thread.

Alan, I am fortunate to have large dimension properties to do experiments. I fully expect that LENR will eventually be safe to use inside a residence or in a pit nearby. That is not the case now until the process is fully understood.

That demo video is exactly how we used to make dry ice for cooling photomultiplier tubes when I was in grad school. Cooling PM tubes dramatically reduces noise and is particularly important for astronomical observations.

A load of sand in the contemplated shield would weighs almost a ton and more with barite or SiC. So I'm thinking a lot about how to brace the relatively thin 1/8 sheet. It now occurs to me that the bracing can all go inside. That would allow angle iron or flat iron on the edge to be welded inside. Trying to keep down the outside net size.

As for the reactor shield again, I'm thinking that once all the steel is welded together that it will be hard to make modifications for apertures. Some apertures, such as for RF connectors, DC connectors, pipes are all obvious enough and can be prepunched or drilled before welding. But ... some future modifications are not obvious before welding. Therefore, I'm thinking of making a few pre-punched holes that to be covered with an easily removable steel plate that can be removed for machining when needed. Most holes will be located at the mid-line level plus four more on the bottom for air cooling. I plan to put a bolt circle around the punched hole with bolts spaced closely enough to prevent 2.4 Ghz from getting through. There are ISM bands at 2.4 Ghz and also at 6.78 Mhz (and others).

Tentatively, I'm thinking of using a 1.5" EMT conduit punch for the holes. The nominal 1.5 size is for the conduit. The standard punch for 1.5" is a larger diameter to accomodate the EMT connector. This implies a bolt circle of about 8 holes with maybe #10-24 screws. I might later to decide to change the size. Greenlee punches do up to 10 gauge. I plan to use 11 gauge, about 1/8 " for the box. That implies 1/2 " square bracing bars along the bottom and maybe 1/3 up the sides with a surrounding horizontal belt of 1/2 at the 1/3 level. I'm avoiding angle iron bracing in order to keep the lagging close.

Air cooling I plan to be U-shaped conduit with holes coming only through the bottom so that nuclear radiation leakage will be directed downward. This implies a U-shaped air channel internally to cool the shielding and core. I'm slow at my age, so blueprints are not yet available, but I'm putting this out there so that others may benefit from this preliminary thinking if they are going ahead with a shielded reactor.

Is it possible that the temperature rise is simply due to adiabatic compression ? My apologies to Khrishchanovich if I misunderstood.

Since this is a thread about laboratory technique, not only about shielding, let me point out the utility of using DIN rail mounting for simple electronic components such as relays, timers, power supplies, etc. A good example of this can be seen in the recently posted video of Krishchanovich's titanium heat experiments. The DIN rail is mounted on a wood board above the reactor. A little bit of the rail is visible with the rest of the rail with clipped on components that are probably power supplies, relays, timers, etc. DIN rail and clip-on components are available on Amazon. All are inexpensive.

An alternate hypothesis for what me356 describes as RF interference is that it is actually nuclear radiation of some sort that is pulsing at an RF rate. It is a matter for investigation. If the hypothesis is true, it might even lend insight into the true mechanism of LENR. Again, it is a matter for investigation.

Yes AlainCo . Here is an example of non-linear control for a LENR reactor: if a burst of radioactivity is detected, a comparator switches, the comparator triggers a monostable that shuts off (or reduces) the control actuator (i.e. external heat, or, nuclear control rod , RF stimulus etc.) . The monostable should probably be set to a time about equal to or slightly exceeding the heat conduction time to the control thermocouple sensor.