Page 1 of 1

Cold Fusion of Beryllium

PostPosted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 1:25 pm
by muon200
In 1930, neutrons were discovered to be coming from Beryllium.
This website has details:
http://dev.physicslab.org/Document.aspx ... eutron.xml

This fusion of a Helium nucleus and a Beryllium atom made Carbon at room temperature. Is this exothermal? How much energy is released or absorbed?

Re: Cold Fusion of Beryllium

PostPosted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 6:34 pm
by muon200
Search engines are not as smart as physicists

Preamble
I used search engines to try to answer my own questions, but those engines are not as wonderful as having a library of physics books. Google is not wise enough to replace being at a university with local professors to inform me.

Amble
Beryllium 9 is the isotope of interest. It is in emeralds and other gem stones as a stable element. If an alpha particle hits it, transmutation occurs during cold fusion. Carbon 12 is produced with a free neutron. I want to know if this is exothermal.

Motivation
Cold fusion is a laughingstock to a degree that is not appropriate. Those who I have heard laugh at the phrase, cold fusion, do not know that Chadwick made his name in 1932 by fusing Beryllium with a Helium nucleus at room temperature at Cavendish Laboratories in February.

Fusion for electrical power generation plants would be valuable. Light elements are favored for fusion. It seems odd that only Beryllium is so easy to fuse for transmutation. A kitchen can cook up a neutron beam from a Beryllium-Copper wrench and an old Coleman lantern mantle that has Thorium in it. Why is Beryllium the only element for kitchen cold fusion?

Results from search engines
One wiki source says light elements are exothermal for fusion, but Beryllium is not described by name. Beryllium 8 is unstable and is not of interest. No results answer my question about the energy released.

Postamble
Nuclear secrets are now kept. Americans taught people how to make nuclear explosions, but now that seems unwise. Americans brought the Iranian Navy into its nuclear submarine base at Groton, Connecticut to teach them how we do it. I was there to see the Iranians on our base around 1973. Maybe they have changed their tune and now keep new secrets away from the world's students. For example, search and do not find: How much more radioactive is Uranium than soil? (200,000 times). Maybe Beryllium's energy release is a secret, too.