Posted on 03/14/2013 1:27:00 PM PDT by Kevmo
Tiny Nuclear Reactions Inside Compact Fluorescent Bulbs?
Harmless low-energy nuclear reactions may be taking place routinely inside of compact fluorescent lightbulbs, according to a physicist whose theories have NASA researchers abuzz with the prospect of cheap, non-polluting energy.
Nuclear reactions may be responsible for an unusual fingerprint of mercury isotopes in used fluorescents that can identify environmental pollution from the bulbs, said Lewis Larsen, a Chicago physicist associated with the Widom-Larsen Theory, which explores slow nuclear reactions among elements that are not radioactive.
“Unbeknownst to the general public, dynamically active nuclear processes are presently occurring in tens of millions of households worldwide,” Larsen told me.
“Fortunately, there aren’t any radiological health risks associated with CFLs because no hard radiation is emitted from them, ” Larsen said, “ and no environmentally hazardous, long-lived radioactive isotopes are typically created by LENRs (low energy nuclear reactions).”
Larsen has suspected low energy nuclear reactions occur in CFLs, he told me, and is encouraged by a February study of used bulbs that found isotopes of mercury that more conventional theories cannot explain.
NASA: A Nuclear Reactor To Replace Your Water Heater Jeff McMahonContributor
The authors of that study analyzed used fluorescent bulbs looking for a unique fingerprint of mercury isotopes. If they could find a unique fingerprint, researchers could identify mercury pollution in the environment that comes from discarded fluorescents:
“All fluorescent lamps use mercury (Hg) and can be a source of Hg to the environment when broken,” write the authors, led by Chris Mead of Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability, in a February issue of Environmental Science and Technology (subscription required).
As compact fluorescents command a larger share of the lighting market, the researchers expect mercury pollution from the bulbs to increase:
“ “The share of atmospheric anthropogenic Hg emissions represented by fluorescent lightbulbs in the United States is 1–5 percent. Only a third of fluorescent lightbulbs are recycled. As fluorescent lighting continues to supplant incandescent lighting, and as emissions from large point sources of Hg, such as coal-fired power plants and municipal waste incinerators are reduced, fluorescents will become an increasingly important source of Hg to the environment. Therefore, a method to detect and quantify Hg derived from fluorescents would be very useful.”
The researchers found their unique fingerprint for mercury from fluorescent bulbs. But they can’t explain why it’s so unique:
“The trapped Hg of used CFL show unusually large isotopic fractionation (the distribution of mercury into its various isotopes), the pattern of which is entirely different from that which has been observed in previous Hg isotope research aside from intentional isotope enrichment.”
Larsen believes he knows why the mercury isotopes in used CFLs are different:
“When viewed through the conceptual lens of the Widom-Larsen theory, Mead et al.’s carefully collected Hg isotope data suggests that low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) transmutations may actually be occurring at extremely low rates in CFLs during normal operation,” he said.
And that should make the idea of home nuclear reactors less frightening, Larsen said.
“If this outstanding new data is substantiated by further experimentation, it provides yet more proof that LENRs are likely to be a truly ‘green,’ safe nuclear technology.”
Larsen hopes to demonstrate that low-energy nuclear reactions are safe, green and commonplace in part to distinguish them from fission reactions that produce dangerous ionizing radiation in conventional reactors. He has found evidence of LENRs occurring in lithium-ion batteries, catalytic converters, and naturally in bacterial processes and lightning.
Many researchers, including NASA scientists, are working on low-energy nuclear reactors that use non-hazardous fuels like nickel and hydrogen to produce energy and non hazardous by-products, like copper. I discuss the reactors in more detail in a prior post, NASA: A Nuclear Reactor To Replace Your Water Heater.
But if low energy nuclear reactions are so commonplace, why haven’t scientists noticed them before? In part because they haven’t looked. LENR activity is subtle, according to Larsen, and it “can only be readily detected and measured through the use of extraordinarily sensitive mass spectroscopy techniques on stable isotopes.”
“Consequently, for nearly 100 years LENR processes have effectively been hidden in plain sight from the vast majority of the scientific community.”
READ MORE:
Larsen, the fellow referenced earlier in this article, would dispute your argument ~ that it’s hot fusion ~ the theory he contributed to says much of that light is from the corona and there a different process prevails ~ which is simply not the same as ‘hot fusion’ which goes on INSIDE the stars and which is expressed, for the most part, at non-visible light frequencies.
The mobsters involved in that have been getting rounded up lately and put on trial. I keep my eye out for some of their American associates who have made it a practice to harrass folks interested in competing alternative energy projects.
jus' sayin' eh!
Nobody is raging against legitimate research
***You haven’t been paying attention to what your fellow anti-science truthers have been saying, even on this thread....
Cold fusion also has zip to do with legitimate science.
39 posted on Thursday, March 14, 2013 7:35:28 PM by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
Sounds like the typical pseudo-scientific malarkey that has been surrounding cold fusion for some time. After my own little quick survey, here is a reputable retort to the theory:
http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/43138/widom-larsen-theory
I am not an expert in nuclear physics. But clearly, the “mainstream” does not accept this. However, being trained both as a condensed matter physicist and chemist, I appreciate the appeal cold fusion, a.k.a. these days “LENR”, has for some otherwise level-headed scientist. But alas it is not energetically viable under currently accepted theories. If some mechanism exists for something like LENR, then it will have to be discovered and proven by experimental evidence, because that would represent probably the greatest breakthrough in physics since the Michelson-Morley experiment, which disproved ether and foreshadowed the quantum and Einstein relativity revolution. That is, it is a paradigm shifting crisis in conventional thinking, ala Kuhnian revolution.
And so I sound like a skeptic, which IMHO is a good scientist. Show me the evidence! However, I would not want to discourage the tinkerers and dreamers to continue their efforts to flail at convention. Ultimately that is what is required to usurp those of us who are conservative in our views ;)
Show me the evidence!
***Read Baudette’s book. Read the papers at lenr-canr.org
Amazon.com: Excess Heat: Why Cold Fusion Research Prevailed ...
http://www.amazon.com/Excess-Heat-Fusion-Research-Prevailed/dp/0967854830 - View by Ixquick Proxy - Highlight
Excess Heat: Why Cold Fusion Research Prevailed (2nd Edition) [Charles G. ... Mr. Baudette has done a excellent job of presenting the fact and history of this ...
Familiarize yourself with the evidence
alas it is not energetically viable under currently accepted theories.
– if it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. That is all there is to it. ~Nobel Prize Winning Nuclear Physicist Richard Feynman
You can disagree all you like. My position is real science, yours is pseudoscience. The "scientific consensus" is meaningless, and is basically "bandwagoning". ONE well done experiment, properly verified, is sufficient to overthrow even the most beautiful theory. See Einstein, Feinman, Schwinger, and hundreds of other "hard" scientists.
All "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof" does is give scientific-SOUNDING cover for "some" supposed scientists to ignore data they don't like.
I see Kevmo has already recommended Beaudette's book and the publications archive at LENR/CANR. The evidence is available.
Get back to us with your opinion after reading Beaudette.
What has impeded LENR is science politics, not lack of evidence. The "hot fusioneers" are protecting their cash cow of grant money. Nothing more, nothing less.
“your fellow anti-science truthers”
Why should I care what you think when you lump everyone in together with your stupid Alinsky tactics, regardless of what their actual opinions are?
Yeah, right. If it was only one incident of fraud, your theory might be plausible, but alas, there are many, so it is not.
Well, I should be more specific. The nonsense you and Warthog post from blogs and discussion forums has zip to do with legitimate science. Things like fusion in light bulbs and Rossi's fraud are examples.
There is only one legitimate cold fusion and that is muon catalyzed.
The only verified instance of fraud in LENR was when a coterie of MIT physicists fudged their positive results.
http://newenergytimes.com/v2/sr/ColdFusion1989/MIT/MITAllegations.shtml
Why should I care about what you think, and why should you care what I think... typical standoff caused by anti-science truthers, like you.
On every one of your threads you resort to name calling. Why should anyone take you seriously?
Using just one line for each "experiment" would take up how many pages of a publication? How could such an article ever be peer reviewed?
“anti-science truthers”
Again with the childish name-calling. What are you, in 3rd grade? Grow up, man.
I wasn’t speaking of fraud in LENR research, just the history of fraud by a particular individual, your boy Rossi. That’s one of the many reasons most people are skeptical of him, and by extension, your posts. You see, if you don’t have enough discernment to realize that Rossi is most likely pulling a con, then anything else you post is suspect by extension.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.