[ExI] Rossi-Focardi device again

spike spike66 at att.net
Sun May 22 15:29:06 UTC 2011


>... On Behalf Of Anders Sandberg
Subject: Re: [ExI] Rossi-Focardi device again

spike wrote:
>
>  
>
>> I had discounted that reaction because 64Ni is less than 1 percent of 
>> natural nickel, but I failed to actually specify that to start with.
>

>This is always dangerous to do. Remember Castle Bravo! :-)  -- Anders
Sandberg,


Point well taken thanks.  In this case I think we are OK in discounting the
little bit of nickel way up on the neutron-y end, since it is less than 1%,
as opposed to the Castle Bravo incident in which lithium 7 accounted for
about 60% of the lithium.  

That being said, I am surprised the nuclear physicists overlooked the
possibility of neutron capture in 7Li.  I sometimes vaguely suspect that
some of the scientists may have known this was a possibility and let it
happen anyways.  Teller wrote a revealing memoir called "Conversations on
the Dark Side of Physics" which is durned hard to find.  I have a copy of
it, which I bought at the museum at Los Alamos, but have never seen it
anywhere else.  Teller reveals material in that volume which makes me think
they could have done stuff like this.  Teller was absolutely determined to
make the biggest bomb imaginable.

spike




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