Belated inquest on cold fusion blast
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Belated inquest on cold fusion blast
25 April 1992
Wrecked equipment from a cold fusion 'cell' that blew up in January, killing
a British scientist, was handed over to the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory last week. The laboratory will carry out a series of tests during
the next few weeks in an attempt to work out why the cell exploded.
Negotiations between California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health
and SRI International, where the explosion occurred, delayed the tests by
three months. The safety division did not want SRI International to be
involved in the tests, but lacked the equipment to do them itself. Attempts
to organise proper analysis of the cell 'turned into a lawyer-letter kind of
activity', says one of the people at SRI.
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore will look for evidence that a burst of
neutrons was released in the explosion. Using gamma-ray spectroscopy, they
will search for chemical elements that would have formed as a result of
being irradiated by neutrons.
These measurements must be performed immediately, says Patrick Grant of
Lawrence Livermore, because the reaction products, if they exist, have been
'steadily decaying towards extinction' over the past three months. No
radiation was detected at the scene of the blast.
Further tests will examine in microscopic detail the physical state and
chemical composition of the metal vessel that surrounded the cell, looking
for fractures in the metal and residues from the explosion. These may
provide some hint of the pressures inside the cell at the time of the blast
and the chemical makeup of the brew that exploded, killing Andrew Riley.
Grant has asked SRI International to hand over the cell's palladium
electrode, so that the laboratory's scientists can look for traces of helium
characteristic of nuclear fusion. The laboratory has had experience in the
past looking for signs of fusion in 'cold fusion' electrodes.
From issue 1818 of New Scientist magazine, 25 April 1992, page 6