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Despite my username, I'm not really an expert. But even with my primitive knowledge, shouldn't any fusion reactor, cold or hot, produce a bunch of easily measu

by IvyMike 13y ago

Despite my username, I'm not really an expert. But even with my primitive knowledge, shouldn't any fusion reactor, cold or hot, produce a bunch of easily measurable alpha/beta/gamma particles?

djcapelis 13y ago
A DT fusion reaction produces He and a neutron. Alpha, beta and gamma particles are stuff that comes from radioactive sources. Even fission reactions don't directly produce those particles, they just change the elements involved which changes the rates at which those particles are emitted. (Fission reactions generally involve bombarding relatively fertile sources with slow neutrons which breaks those elements down and usually cause more neutrons to show up.) For whatever it's worth. The reactions the article is talking about isn't DT or a fission reaction. So I'm not sure if it's producing radioisotopes where you could verify their presence by looking for alpha/beta/gamma particles. There's probably a way, even a change in beta particles from tritium could be used to partially confirm a DT reaction, so an equivalent very well might exist. Though with light elements like these, it seems the easier way to confirm this would just be to look for signs of the product element directly. (Copper in this case. Which should be easy to test for.)
bayesianhorse 13y ago
I think the idea of that reaction is that it doesn't provide ionizing radiation. Also there might be some such particles, but if Rossi determines independent readings as a threat to his intellectual property he can prohibit the other scientists from getting these readings.
- djcapelis 13y ago
  > if Rossi determines independent readings as a threat to his intellectual property he can prohibit the other scientists from getting these readings. Echos of Utah all over again... I guess we'll see how it shakes out. Confirmation and replication is important. Though I guess if he can prove that he can put nickle into a jar and take copper out, that's probably a pretty good start.
HCIdivision17 13y ago
Yup. In this case there's some beta (electron) decay. I'm curious about how heat is transmitted, though, too. Possibly it's just from the electrons. Hmm, time to look up the nuke charts again. Edit: here's a chart: http://atom.kaeri.re.kr/ton/nuc4.html http://atom.kaeri.re.kr/ton/nuc4.html Edit2: for convenience, here's the paper: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1305.3913v2.pdf http://arxiv.org/pdf/1305.3913v2.pdf

by IvyMike 13y ago

Despite my username, I'm not really an expert. But even with my primitive knowledge, shouldn't any fusion reactor, cold or hot, produce a bunch of easily measurable alpha/beta/gamma particles?

djcapelis 13y ago

A DT fusion reaction produces He and a neutron. Alpha, beta and gamma particles are stuff that comes from radioactive sources. Even fission reactions don't directly produce those particles, they just change the elements involved which changes the rates at which those particles are emitted. (Fission reactions generally involve bombarding relatively fertile sources with slow neutrons which breaks those elements down and usually cause more neutrons to show up.) For whatever it's worth. The reactions the article is talking about isn't DT or a fission reaction. So I'm not sure if it's producing radioisotopes where you could verify their presence by looking for alpha/beta/gamma particles. There's probably a way, even a change in beta particles from tritium could be used to partially confirm a DT reaction, so an equivalent very well might exist. Though with light elements like these, it seems the easier way to confirm this would just be to look for signs of the product element directly. (Copper in this case. Which should be easy to test for.)

bayesianhorse 13y ago

I think the idea of that reaction is that it doesn't provide ionizing radiation. Also there might be some such particles, but if Rossi determines independent readings as a threat to his intellectual property he can prohibit the other scientists from getting these readings.

djcapelis 13y ago
> if Rossi determines independent readings as a threat to his intellectual property he can prohibit the other scientists from getting these readings. Echos of Utah all over again... I guess we'll see how it shakes out. Confirmation and replication is important. Though I guess if he can prove that he can put nickle into a jar and take copper out, that's probably a pretty good start.

HCIdivision17 13y ago

Yup. In this case there's some beta (electron) decay. I'm curious about how heat is transmitted, though, too. Possibly it's just from the electrons. Hmm, time to look up the nuke charts again. Edit: here's a chart: http://atom.kaeri.re.kr/ton/nuc4.html http://atom.kaeri.re.kr/ton/nuc4.html Edit2: for convenience, here's the paper: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1305.3913v2.pdf http://arxiv.org/pdf/1305.3913v2.pdf