maniac%garnet.Berkeley.EDU@ (George W. Herbert) (04/07/89)
From: maniac%garnet.Berkeley.EDU@ (George W. Herbert) Having determined that idle speculation was running rampant about the new cold fusion, i determined to do something about it: i got a copy of the article by Pons and Fleischmann. Some interesting tidbits from it: The chemical reaction and electrical interaction at the surface creates potentials of 0.8eV, and can be raised to about 2.0eV (theory). The equivalent of this using pressure would be 10^26 atmospheres. Neutron count measured in one case to be ~3 times background. This was affected by equipment positioning. They did not feel that neutron exposure was a problem, however, and did not discuss it. They appeared to be unafraid of That. Results of 10w/cm^3 were attained for 120 hours as output. They project that doing this with Tritium could lead to 10^3 or 4 ratio of power out to power in (the Deuterium was running @5-10 depending on the experiment) with a power density of 10Kw/cm^3. They DID have a palladium electrode, (mp 1554 c) melt. Some interpretation: As I have said before, the power density of the deuterium reaction is low. However, the tritium reaction density raises the possibility of (if it can be engineered [mm. give me a little time...]) running MUCH smaller power plants. Unless I miss my math, 10Kw~5HP. Per cubic centimeter, at about seven grams. THIS is truly marvelous. They go into great detail explaining how they think it is happening. I really think that they are telling the whole truth as they know it. george william herbert maniac@garnet.berkeley.edu