Primary and Secondary Reactions in a LENR with a Li Electrolyte Solution

Colorado Mountain College, Glenwood Springs, Colorado, USA ^ | June 2020 | N. L. Bowen

[Kevmo]

Bowen: Primary and Secondary Reactions in a LENR with a Li Electrolyte Solution

N. L. Bowen

Colorado Mountain College, Glenwood Springs, Colorado, USA nbowen@coloradomtn.edu

Conventional nuclear physicists claim that low energy nuclear reactions cannot exist because:

 Too much 4He is produced, according to the reaction probabilities of a 2D(2D, γ) 4He reaction.

 The gamma radiation from the reactor is too small for the reactions that should be occurring.

 The ratio of excess energy to 4He production is smaller than it should be.

 There are no neutrons coming out of the apparatus. This paper will address those criticisms and show that these are incorrect misconceptions. These misconceptions are due to the fact that the secondary reactions inside the low energy nuclear reactor are not being taken into consideration by the naïve calculations.

The primary reactions occurring in the LENR are the two reactions of 2D(2D, n)3He and 2D(2D, p)3H; each of these reactions occurring with a 50% relative ratio. These primary reactions occur within the palladium material of the LENR cell. While these primary reactions are important, the secondary reactions also play a critical role.

The most significant secondary reaction is that of 6Li within the electrolyte solution interacting with the neutrons. For the 6Li(n, 3H)4He reaction, the thermal nuclear cross section of 6Li is 942 barns [1, 2], an extremely large cross section.

In this reaction, the 6Li does not absorb the neutron, but rather uses the neutron to transform itself into an alpha and a tritium. The percentage of 6Li in natural abundance is 7.59%, a relatively large abundance; which means this secondary reaction will be highly probable in a LENR with an electrolyte solution of lithium.

A calculation of the energy and the child products is made for a typical LENR. It is shown that the secondary reaction is not only very probable, but essentially eliminates all of the neutrons created in the primary reaction.

Also, the resulting energy is much less than the predicted energy of the extremely improbable 2D (2D, γ) 4He reaction.

This calculation is made for the reactions involving of two pairs of 2D ions--where the initial parent nuclides are four 2D ions. Two of these 2D ions will form 3H + p, and the other two 2D ions will form 3He + n. Because of the extremely large thermal nuclear cross section in the secondary reaction, all of these newly-created neutrons will combine with the 6Li in the electrolyte solution to form 3H + 4He.

In summary, in the total reaction involving both primary and secondary reactions, the parent nucleons are four 2D ions, plus one 6Li ion. The child products are 3H + 3H + 3He + 4He + p. For every four ions of 2D and one 6Li ion, the net total energy output is much less energy than the improbable 2D(2D, γ) 4He reaction, with no neutrons and very little if any gamma radiation.

Thus by considering the secondary reactions taking place inside an LENR electrolyte cell, four of the more significant criticisms of the conventional nuclear physicists against LENR are easily answered. Due to the inclusion of the 6Li nuclide in the total reaction, the released total energy is less.

The probability of the reaction for the creation of 4He is much higher than the 2D(2D, γ) 4He reaction. Furthermore in the reaction that includes 6Li, there is very little, if any, gamma radiation created.

The ratio of excess energy to 4He production is much smaller than would be predicted by a naïve calculation, and there are essentially no neutrons escaping the apparatus.

[1] N. E. Holden, Review of Thermal Neutron Cross Sections and Isotopic Composition of the Elements, BNLNCS-42224 (March1989).

[2] Edgardo Browne, Janis Dairiki, and Raymond Doebler, editors Lederer and Virginia Shirley. Table of Isotopes, 7th edition, 1978, John Wiley and Sons.

[3] National Nuclear Data Center, information extracted from the NuDat 2 database,

http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/nudat2/

[Kevmo]

"much less energy than the improbable 2D(2D, γ) 4He reaction" ***Occham's Razor applies here.

[Kevmo]

for the cold fusion ping list

[Paladin2]

Glenwood Springs, Colorado would be a good place to go to school.

[Wonder Warthog]

The Cold Fusion/LENR Ping List

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/coldfusion/index?tab=articles

Keywords: ColdFusion; LENR; lanr; CMNS
chat—science

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http://lenr-canr.org/

Vortex-L
http://tinyurl.com/pxtqx3y

Best book to get started on this subject:
EXCESS HEAT
Why Cold Fusion Research Prevailed by Charles Beaudette

https://www.abebooks.com/9780967854809/Excess-Heat-Why-Cold-Fusion-0967854806/plp

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[Varmint Al]

There is a lot of information in this well done chart:

http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/nudat2/

Good Hunting... from Varmint Al