[ExI] Rossi-Focardi device again

[spike]

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

Il 22/05/2011 17:29, spike ha scritto:

>>>> 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.

>In fact, IIRC, Rossi hinted the Nickel used is someway "enriched".

>If he enrich the nickel so the 64Ni is more than 1 %, the reaction could
make sense?  Mirco


I have been pondering that.  If they had centrifuges to extract the heavy
nickel, they could use the same process to enrich uranium, with the end
product being far more valuable.

However, let's ignore that for the present.  Then it becomes a question of
muon range, which looks to me like it is far too short to allow proton
capture.  Now I really am relying on memories from 30 year old physics
lectures, but as I understand it, the mechanism is to catalyze the proton
capture using a muon, which is like an electron but has a couple hundred
times the mass.  I haven't heard any other proposed mechanism besides muon
catalysis.

spike