Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

[McCoy]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

Are 2.1 MeV gamma rays detected to prove that's what's going on?

I'd settle for helium, at least for now.

[Cancer]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

If they are making D by "catalyzed inverse beta decay" of H to make neutrons and then having those neutrons be captured by protons (whether or not the D gets turned into He subsequently), then there must be those 2.1 MeV gamma rays. No gamma rays, no p+n-->D. And that was the Achilles heel of the original Cold Fusion fiasco, too. If what you really have are nuclear processes, you have to have gamma rays. So the entire physics community asked, Hey Drs P and F, what's the gamma ray flux from your fusion cell? And there never was a straight answer. And from what I see from the outfit in question, there still isn't a straight answer. All there is is a lot of calorimetry and "proprietary circuits" and marketing hints, which smells like Yet Again they are messing around with absorption of hydrogen into palladium metal matrix, and Pd has a truly remarkable capacity for H for reasons I don't understand (I'm an astrophysicist, and I have never had any solid state physics lessons at all, and this is pretty obviously solid state physics).

 

If anything, you might plunk down a few bucks in the spot metal market for palladium, but be ready to sell as fast as you bought.

[McCoy]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

If they are making D by "catalyzed inverse beta decay" of H to make neutrons and then having those neutrons be captured by protons (whether or not the D gets turned into He subsequently)' date=' then there [u']must[/u] be those 2.1 MeV gamma rays. No gamma rays, no p+n-->D.

Thank you!

 

All there is is a lot of calorimetry and "proprietary circuits" and marketing hints' date=' which smells like Yet Again they are messing around with absorption of hydrogen into palladium metal matrix, and Pd has a truly remarkable capacity for H for reasons I don't understand (I'm an astrophysicist, and I have never had any solid state physics lessons at all, and this is pretty obviously solid state physics).[/quote']

I'm told it has something to do with the crystal structure, but the people telling me that then change the subject.

 

If anything' date=' you might plunk down a few bucks in the spot metal market for palladium, but be ready to sell as fast as you bought.[/quote']

$683.90/oz today, down from $795.10 a year ago.

 

Compare to $1,574.80/oz for platinum, and $1,662.50/oz for gold. Yes, sometime in this last year gold got more expensive than platinum.

[Guest dr. strangelove]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

I'm waiting for other labs to confirm this, it would be nice if it worked out. I'm also concerned that it might work and be killed by oil corps who don't want any alternatives to be found.

[Old Man]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

I'm told it has something to do with the crystal structure, but the people telling me that then change the subject.

 

Gamma rays aren't going to interact with the crystal structure. Even if there were something about it that caused it to absorb gamma at that exact energy, I still don't see how it could block all the photons and prevent them from being detected.

 

Has anyone looked at the powerpoint from the Brillouin site? This is why graphic designers exist, people.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

From what I read, and I freely admit to being a dilettante in my hard sciences, it seems to me that this is more of a EM stimulated catalytic reaction, one that liberates more heat than the energy it costs to generate the pulse that initiates the reaction.

 

Which is still cool, and potentially very useful

[McCoy]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

I'm waiting for other labs to confirm this' date=' it would be nice if it worked out. I'm also concerned that it might work and be killed by oil corps who don't want any alternatives to be found.[/quote']

Nonsense. The big corporations love alternative energy; as long as they control it. BP is one of the world's largest producers of electricity from wind, Waste Management is leading the field in bio-methane.

[McCoy]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

Gamma rays aren't going to interact with the crystal structure. Even if there were something about it that caused it to absorb gamma at that exact energy' date=' I still don't see how it could block [i']all[/i] the photons and prevent them from being detected.

 

Has anyone looked at the powerpoint from the Brillouin site? This is why graphic designers exist, people.

Not the gamma rays, the crystal structure is (supposedly) why an apparently solid bar of palladium can soak up so much hydrogen.

[Guest dr. strangelove]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

Nonsense. The big corporations love alternative energy; as long as they control it. BP is one of the world's largest producers of electricity from wind' date=' Waste Management is leading the field in bio-methane.[/quote']

 

And that, my friend, is what concerns me. If a new energy source comes along that would, if used properly, make energy really cheap they might squash it simply because they could not control it and make enough epople believe that they had to pay as much or more for the new power source than they're paying now.

[sinanju]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

And that' date=' my friend, is what concerns me. If a new energy source comes along that would, if used properly, make energy really cheap they might squash it simply because they could not control it and make enough epople believe that they had to pay as much or more for the new power source than they're paying now.[/quote']

 

It won't happen.

 

Say that this thing really works. Say, also, that Big Oil (I feel like I'm playing SJGames' ILLUMINATI all of a sudden) decides it MUST BE CRUSHED. Can't let it cut into their profits, after all. Well, since they're rich and powerful, nobody can possibly stop them. Right?

 

Wrong.

 

Amazon could. Or Microsoft. Or Apple. Or anyone, really, who ALSO has billions of dollars but DOESN'T have a multi-billion dollar investment in a soon-to-be-obsolete oil industry infrastructure they need to protect. They can make obscene profits by investing in this technology without having to eat the costs Big Oil would, and it won't eat into their existing business models. They can demonize Big Oil for trying to suppress this great new boon to mankind out of greed and squelch any attempt by Big Oil to squelch the new technology.

[Christopher]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

If I were one of the people working on this technology' date=' I would be trying very, very hard to get the media to call it something else.[/quote']

They have a different name: "low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR)".

 

The claim is they start with hydrogen and end up with helium. How by any definition of the word is that not fusion?

Fusion without classifier or specification can stand from anything from a Music Style, the a medical Proceudre, to Several (parts of) gaming consoles to several Superhero comics.

Lacking any classifier or specification and using the context, I asumed you meant this definition:

This is called Nuclear Fusion.

 

What is described in the Article is not Nuclear Fusion. Nuclear Fusion is the totally wrong type of fusion for any form of LENR, because you always need lot's of energy.

[Sougen]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

I can't remember, is the TSAR bomb the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated (well, largest weapon period, really)? Also, did anyone ever try to make anything larger with success?

[Guest dr. strangelove]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

I can't remember' date=' is the TSAR bomb the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated (well, largest weapon period, really)? Also, did anyone ever try to make anything larger with success?[/quote']

 

It's the biggest bomb ever detonated, I seem to recall hearing that there is some sort of limit as to how big you can make a fusion bomb, beyond a certain point a lot of the fusionable material vaporizes away with actually undergoing fusion in a bomb, I believe.

[Christopher]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

It's the biggest bomb ever detonated' date=' I seem to recall hearing that there is some sort of limit as to how big you can make a fusion bomb, beyond a certain point a lot of the fusionable material vaporizes away with actually undergoing fusion in a bomb, I believe.[/quote']

Afaik they thought about adding a Fission Layer on top of it for about twice the explosive force, but that would have increased the world wide radiation from nuclear tests by 25%. And they thought that thing was still big enough with "just" 50 Mt TNT equivalent.

As I understand it, as long as you alternate the layers/stages between Fission and Fusion you can go pretty far up.

[Sundog]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

Tsar Bomba was built to be a 100 Megaton Bomb, but the testing ground (Novaya Zemlya island, off the North Coast of Russia) was deemed too close to important stuff, so they staged it down to 50 Mt. No one else has done larger than 20 Mt to my knowledge.

[Old Man]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

I can't remember' date=' is the TSAR bomb the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated (well, largest weapon period, really)? Also, did anyone ever try to make anything larger with success?[/quote']

 

As others here have already posted, Tsar Bomba was designed as a 100MT three-stage (fission-fusion-fission) device, but the plutonium third stage was replaced with a lead tamper for the test detonation. 50MT is considered to be the approximate upper practical limit for nuclear weapons--the fireballs of larger detonations are not contained by the atmosphere, so much of the additional energy is lost to space.

[Christopher]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

As others here have already posted' date=' Tsar Bomba was designed as a 100MT three-stage (fission-fusion-fission) device, but the plutonium third stage was replaced with a lead tamper for the test detonation. 50MT is considered to be the approximate upper practical limit for nuclear weapons--the fireballs of larger detonations are not contained by the atmosphere, so much of the additional energy is lost to space.[/quote']

Wait, did we talked about the upper Limits of Practilca Nuclear Weapons or the Upper Limits of Fission/Fusion Explosives in general.

 

Because both Castle Bravo and the Tzar Bomb were very powerfull - but utterly useless from a military point of view:

To heavy, to hard to build and whatever you aimed for was propably easier to hit with a dozen normal warheads (wich had the same weight and volume requirements) - wich also were harder to Block wiht Defense Systems. To quote Wikipedia: "the Tsar Bomba was an impractically powerful weapon"

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

Wait, did we talked about the upper Limits of Practilca Nuclear Weapons or the Upper Limits of Fission/Fusion Explosives in general.

 

Because both Castle Bravo and the Tzar Bomb were very powerfull - but utterly useless from a military point of view:

To heavy, to hard to build and whatever you aimed for was propably easier to hit with a dozen normal warheads (wich had the same weight and volume requirements) - wich also were harder to Block wiht Defense Systems. To quote Wikipedia: "the Tsar Bomba was an impractically powerful weapon"

 

Yeah, but if you use it and roll a mushroom cloud(or spin a triple yield) you destroy the world...

 

 

(I played a LOT of Nuclear War/Escalation, back in the day)

[Tom Carman]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

Yeah, but if you use it and roll a mushroom cloud(or spin a triple yield) you destroy the world...

 

 

(I played a LOT of Nuclear War/Escalation, back in the day)

 

Hmm. Wasn't the Saturn rocket the only launcher big enough to carry a 100 MT warhead?

[Sundog]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

Hmm. Wasn't the Saturn rocket the only launcher big enough to carry a 100 MT warhead?

 

In the original set, yes. The Escalation set added the MX, but that split the warhead in to 10Mt groups, and the Proliferation set gave you a bomber that could carry the 100Mt.

[Zeropoint]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

Yeah, but if you use it and roll a mushroom cloud(or spin a triple yield) you destroy the world...

 

I don't want to destroy the world! It's where I keep all my stuff!

[SteveZilla]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

This looks interesting. Actually, "interesting" might be an understatement, so I'll be watching this story.

 

http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2012-04-29/peak-oil-crisis-quantum-fusion-hypothesis

 

http://www.brillouinenergy.com/

 

Do they explain how the Neutron-Emission decay of the Quadrium managed to create an extra Proton*?

 

*IANANP, I just read a lot.

[McCoy]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

Do they explain how the Neutron-Emission decay of the Quadrium managed to create an extra Proton*?

 

*IANANP, I just read a lot.

Beta-Emission, a neutron in the unstable Quadrium emits an electron, turning into a Proton. That's how the ⁴H becomes ⁴He. Or so they claim.

 

Has anyone replicated their results yet?

[SteveZilla]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

Beta-Emission' date=' a neutron in the unstable Quadrium emits an electron, turning into a Proton. That's how the [sUP']4[/sUP]H becomes ⁴He. Or so they claim.

 

Has anyone replicated their results yet?

 

According to Wikipedia (yeah, yeah), 3-H (I don't know how to do the superscript here) undergoes that kind of decay to Helium, but 4-H (not the club!) just spits out a Neutron to become 3-H. Is it possible that 4-H has more than one kind of decay?

[Narf the Mouse]

Re: Like Cold Fusion... Except It Works?

 

Very little detail, almost no names, lot of grandiose claims - It's a scam, man![/freeverse]