GIThruster wrote:This physicist quoted above is saying that low kev gamma is predicted by WLT. Do you recall if that's so?
WLT supposes that high energy gammas (above 500keV) are absorbed by heavy electrons. That leaves lower energy gammas. They also are vague as to what frequency of re-emmission from heavy electrons would be expected - but claim infra-red. That would be convenient.
Now - why am I unimpressed? There are key questions not answered:
(1) Where are the betas? These will zip out of the WL protected reactive pockets and should decay to gammas are do other stuff that is detectable?
(2) What happens to the reaction products when the WL system is switched off. They must persist, and would result in detectable unshielded radiation at the end of experiments for some time.
(3) Why infra-red? other photons like visible of soft x-ray (keV gamma) are possible. The thesis is that very large amounts of infra-red are produced - surely there should be detectable amts the other stuff?
So the thesis (heavy electrons shield gammas) that looks good initially looks flakey on closer inspection.
A reminder. For 1mW output we have 10^10 1MeV particles per second produced. All we need to measure above background is a few 100. Is it credible the heavy electrons (which apparently are restricted to small micro-sites anyway) can catch all but 1 in 10^8 particles?
For the levels of heat claimed in LENR the lack of detectable radiation is the elephant in the room. WL does not offer a real get-out.
Their comment is below.
Question 3 - Why aren't large quantities of "hard" gamma/X-ray radiation seen in LENR experiments that have also produced substantial amounts of excess heat and/or nuclear transmutations? It is widely appreciated that the anomalously large excess heat and/or transmutations observed in LENR experiments cannot be explained by a chemical process without invoking nuclear reactions. However, typical nuclear processes such as fission or fusion would be expected to emit copious, lethal doses of energetic X- and gamma rays during experiments. So, why aren't all the many LENR experimentalists dead from hard radiation poisoning?
Widom and Larsen answer - The expected gamma rays are in fact produced when ultra low momentum neutrons are locally absorbed by nuclei in LENR systems. However, surface electrons bathed in "soft" low energy radiation also have the unique ability to quickly and efficiently absorb "hard" gamma rays and convert the gammas' energy into other "soft" radiation --- that is, mostly into the form of many more soft infrared photons (heat). Thus, in LENR systems, hard gamma ray photons in the energy range between 0.5 MeV and 10.0 MeV are locally absorbed and converted directly into heat. Importantly, in the relatively rare cases in which gamma radiation has been detected experimentally in LENR systems, the observed quantities of hard radiation are relatively small (not biologically significant) with energies that are strongly suppressed above about 0.5 MeV, exactly as predicted by our theory. So, LENR systems have intrinsic built-in gamma shielding, a remarkable property by any standard.
According to our theory, primary end-products of LENRs include stable isotopes, beta and alpha particles, "soft" electromagnetic radiation (in most LENR systems, predominantly infrared along with some barely measurable amounts of low-energy X-rays), and neutrinos. The ~1 MeV electron neutrinos, of course, radiate without any consequence into the environment.
Also according to our theory, in LENR systems, extremely neutron-rich, unstable intermediate reaction products turn into stable elements very quickly via cascades of rapid beta decays. In the case of LENRs, these very neutron-rich intermediates probably have half-lives measured in milliseconds, seconds, minutes, or at most hours --- typically not days, months, or many years. We believe that this is exactly why LENR systems do not produce large quantities of long-lived radioactive isotopes like existing commercial fission reactors; importantly, there are no known nuclear waste disposal issues with LENR systems.
Generally, X-rays, when detected, comprise small fluxes of "soft" photons. Biologically dangerous quantities of really "hard" (MeV+ energy) X- and/or gamma rays have never been observed in thousands of experiments with LENR systems over 18 years.
In our opinion, the phenomenon of LENRs is not predominantly strong interaction fusion or fission. According to our work, LENRs are mainly driven by the weak interaction. Sadly, the "cold fusion" people have doggedly pursued an incorrect D-D fusion paradigm since 1989. That problem, along with substantial misdirection of experimental work and other related "wheel spinning," is one of the many reasons why the field stagnated for so long, as noted in numerous critical comments made by outside scientists during the last Department of Energy "cold fusion" review panel back in 2004.