Posted on 08/26/2011 9:59:32 PM PDT by Kevmo
Author name
Giuliano Bettini*
Title
Cold Fusion. Andrea Rossi’s Method
Abstract
The interest on Andrea Rossi's Nickel-Hydrogen Cold Fusion technology is accelerating. In the
present article I would like to answer a question posed by L. Kowalsky in Vixra: how can 30% of
nickel in Rossi’s reactor be transmuted into copper? "Everything should be made as simple as
possible, but not simpler", says a guy. I apologizes if I am too simplistic here.
________________
* Retired. Earlier: Selenia SpA, Rome and IDS SpA, Pisa. Also Adjunct Professor at the University
of Pisa, Adjunct Professor at Naval Academy, Leghorn (Italian Navy). E-mail:
mariateresacapra@tiscali.it
Introduction
The interest on Andrea Rossi's Nickel-Hydrogen Cold Fusion technology is accelerating [1].
However, Rossi says that about 30% of nickel was turned into copper, after 6 months of
uninterrupted operation. Kowalski [2]. says that “this seems to be impossible because the produced
copper isotopes rapidly decay into Ni”. But how it works?
How it works
Following Focardi Rossi [3]. a Ni58 nucleus produces a Copper nucleus according to the reaction
Ni58 + p → Cu59
Copper nucleus Cu59 decays with positron (e+) and neutrino (ν) emission in Ni59 nucleus
according to
Cu59 → Ni59 + ν + e+
Then (e+) annichilates with (e-) in two gamma-rays
e- + e+ → γ + γ
Starting [3] from Ni58 which is the more abundant isotope, we can obtain as described in the two
above processes Copper formation and its successive decay in Nickel, producing Ni59, Ni60, Ni61
and Ni62. Because Cu63, which can be formed starting by Ni62, is stable and does not decay in
Ni63, the chain stops at Ni62 (i.e. Cu63). Each process means some MeV.
Of course how can a proton p gets captured by the Ni58 nucleus? (and subsequent Ni59, Ni60, Ni61
and Ni62). Following Stremmenos [4]. a neutron-like particle, an electron proton pair, a mini-atom,
a proton masked as a neutron, gets captured by the Ni58.
If the masked proton becomes a neutron the result is Ni59.
In order to have Cu59 (increase of atomic number from 28 to 29) the electron (of the masked
proton) gets ejected from the nucleus. The masked proton becomes a proton.
The same process holds for all the subsequent transformations, until Cu63.
It remains to be understood the issue of the gamma radiation in the MeV range.
Numbers
I am an electronic engineer, so I need easy numbers in order to understand.
However "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler", says a guy. Maybe I
am too simple here.
Let’s calculate.
MeV for each Ni transformation
I read that starting from Ni58 we can obtain Copper formation and its successive decay in Nickel,
producing Ni59, Ni60, and Ni62. The chain stops at Cu63 stable.
For simplicity I assume all the Nickel in the reactor in the form Ni58.
For simplicity I suppose for each Ni58 the whole sequence of events from Ni58 to Cu63 and as a
rough estimate I calculate the mass defect between (Ni58 plus 5 nucleons) and the final state Cu63.
Ni58 mass is calculated to be 57.95380± 15 amu
The actual mass of a copper-Cu63 nucleus is 62.91367 amu
Mass of Ni58 plus 5 nucleons is 57.95380+5=62.95380 amu
Mass defect is 62.95380-62.91367=0.04013 amu
1 amu = 931 MeV is used as a standard conversion
0.04013x931 MeV=37.36 MeV
So each transformation of Ni58 into Cu63 releases 37.36MeV of nuclear energy.
Nickel consumption
According to many blogs in the Internet “One hundred grams of nickel powder can power a 10 kW
unit for a minimum of six months”.
How much of Ni58 should be transformed, in six months of continuous operation, in order to
generate 10 kW?
I follow a procedure outlined in [2].
10 kW is thermal or electrical (?) power. The nuclear power must be larger. Assume a nuclear
power twice:
20 kW = 20,000 J/s = 1.25 x 10**17 MeV/s.
Each transformation of Ni58 into Cu63 releases 37.36MeV of nuclear energy.
The number of Ni58 transformations should thus be equal to (1.25 x 10**17)/37.36 = 3.346 x
10**15 per second.
Multiplying by the number of seconds in six months (1.55 x 10**7) the total number of transformed
Ni58 nuclei is 5.186 x 10**22.
This means 5 grams.
The order of magnitude is not exactly the same but seems to be plausible. This means also 5 grams
of Nickel in Rossi’s reactor transmuted into (stable) Copper after six months of continuous
operation at the rate of 10 kW.
Remarks
Once finished the paper I’ve found that I used old Internet data for masses.
More recent data seem to be (see for ex. Wiki, isotopes of Nickel, isotopes of Copper):
Ni58(57.9353429)
Cu63(62.9295975)
With these data, mass of Ni58 plus 5 nucleons is 57.9353429 +5=62.9353429 amu
Mass defect 0.0057454 amu
This is 7 lower with respect to 0.04013 amu reported in the paper.
It means 7 times more Nickel, 7 times more Copper, 5x7=35 grams.
Conclusions
Rossi says that about 30% of nickel was turned into copper, after 6 months of uninterrupted
operation. At first glance this seems to agree with calculations based on simple assumptions.
References
[1] Link, Cold Fusion "Andrea Rossi" Method
[2] L. Kowalski, “Rossi's Reactors Reality or Fiction?”, http://vixra.org/abs/1103.0080, March 2011
[3] A.Rossi, S. Focardi, http://www.journal-of-nuclear-physics.com
[4] E. Stremmenos, “Hydrogen/Nickel cold fusion probable mechanism”, www.journal-of-nuclearphysics.
com/?p=338&cpage, March 2011
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/coldfusion/index?tab=articles
http://vixra.org/pdf/1104.0006v3.pdf
The Cold Fusion Ping List
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/coldfusion/index?tab=articles
http://vixra.org/pdf/1104.0006v3.pdf
heads the Veterinary Pathological Anatomy and Veterinary Oncology courses at the University of Bologna...I don’t know, I think I will stick with it is a fraud
I can’t wait until November when we find out it’s really a coffee can stuffed with shredded newspaper.
Oh, so then it’s a carbon based catalyst ;-)
Flame suit on but, NO.
you cannot transmute a thing into another thing.
Fairytale hypothesis.
The Journal of Nuclear Physics is Rossi's blog in case anybody wants to know.
Somebody transmuted a pile of shite into a President. Just saying...
Dang it!!!
H’owd Dat Happuhn?
THE HELL YOU CAN’T
you need to read up on thorium reactors, bubba.
or for that matter...a plain old fashioned breeder reactor
dang, I’m embarrassed for you
If by this you meant transmuting elements into other elements: note that the processes of nuclear fission and fusion achieve this all the time.
Every element in the universe heavier than hydrogen came about primarily because of nuclear fusion in the centre of stars. We are literally made of the dust of stars.
Can we carry out these acts of nuclear transmutation? Most of them: only theoretically. But we can certainly do the easy stuff: we can e.g. stick mixed isotopes of Uranium into a rod and watch Plutonium appear.
If Rossi's method actually worked then it would be another case of assembling raw nuclear materials in the correct geometry and letting the transmutation happen.
Hope this was helpful.
Yeah, I suggest that the Ping List be renamed to the Cold Fusion Fraud Ping List.
Truth in advertising.
http://www.globalwarmingskeptics.info/forums/thread-1355.html
other search results:
http://www.google.com/search?q=ni58+cu
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1965PhRv..140..882W
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1958PhRv..112.1295M
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1957PhRv..108.1473B
I saw a guy walking down the street turn into a bar. Does that count?
Sure you can. And either on the nuclear or chemical level. I can easily transmute a tree into CO2, H2O and heat. And there are a large number of operating plants around the world producing large quantities of power using both nuclear and chemical transmutation processes. The former using U-235, the latter using coal, oil, natural gas, and sometimes trees.
So why read/comment on the threads?? Nobody drags you in here and forces you to read the stuff.....you actually have to CHOOSE to read them. And nobody is interested in a constant stream of "it's a scam" comments, which is all you two seem capable of contributing.
Well, actually you can, but it usually takes a nuclear reactor to accomplish. I remember the urban legend about the Soviets having a pile of gold that they had made in their reactors in an attempt to flood and destroy the Western currency system, but couldn’t use because the gold was too radioactive to touch. As for this article, I call BS; not that I don’t believe that some cold-fusionists have generated heat, just that I think that there is some chemical process behind it, not nuclear fusion.
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