Cold fusion in production use?
Wm E Davidsen Jr
I just heard an interesting one... one of our physicists was talking
to an oil driller at a conference, and it came out that oil companies
use neutron mapping of rock formations to determine characteristics of
the formation. It seems that they lower a neutron emitter down a well,
turn it on, and run their mapping hardware to find oil, or formations,
or whatever.
Now the interesting thing about this is the the driller says the
neutron emmiter is a gadget which forces tritium into a lithium compound
and causes enough fusion to do the job.
I have no way of checking this out, but if this is a production
process, as it appears, then it makes me doubt two of the statements
often posted, (1) that you can't get fuion that way, and (2) that it is
in some way aneutronic.
I also wonder what this does to any patent claims.
There is no claim that the process produces any measurable energy,
certainly not breakeven, it's just a convenient way to get neutrons
without having something radioactive around.
Now could someone in oil country check this out? Neither the guy who
passed the story to me nor the original oil man have any interest in
CNF, they were talking about detectors, not emiters, at the conference.
--
bill davidsen (davi...@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
The Twin Peaks Halloween costume: stark naked in a body bag
Paul Dietz
>
> I just heard an interesting one... one of our physicists was talking
>to an oil driller at a conference, and it came out that oil companies
>use neutron mapping of rock formations to determine characteristics of
>the formation. It seems that they lower a neutron emitter down a well,
>turn it on, and run their mapping hardware to find oil, or formations,
>or whatever.
>
> Now the interesting thing about this is the the driller says the
>neutron emmiter is a gadget which forces tritium into a lithium compound
>and causes enough fusion to do the job.
Borehole neutron sources are old hat. They are small vacuum tubes
in which deuterons or trition ions are accelerated into a target
containing deuterium or tritium.
This is not cold fusion; fusion is induced by the good, old-fashioned
impact of energetic nuclei. The neutrons are used to measure hydrogen
density (by seeing how they thermalize) and to do elemental analysis
of the rock formation (by looking at inelastic scattering gammas,
capture gammas, and gamma emission from decay of activated nuclei).
The journal Science recently had an article on geochemical well logging
that describes the process in more detail.
Paul F. Dietz
di...@cs.rochester.edu
Mark H. North
>neutron emmiter is a gadget which forces tritium into a lithium compound
>and causes enough fusion to do the job.
>
to feed the neutron generator. There is no 'cold fusion' going on here.
Mark
Wilson Heydt
>
>without having something radioactive around.
Excuse me? I hate to spoil your fun--but last time I checked, tritium
was radioactive. Is it possible that someone is pulling your leg?
--Hal
=======================================================================
Hal Heydt | Practice Safe Government
Analyst, Pacific*Bell | Use Kingdoms
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Mark H. North
>In article <28...@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> davi...@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen) writes:
>>it's just a convenient way to get neutrons
>>without having something radioactive around.
>
>Excuse me? I hate to spoil your fun--but last time I checked, tritium
>was radioactive. Is it possible that someone is pulling your leg?
>
such as Pu-Be or 252Cf. Properly encased tritium should show no
external radioactivity.
Mark
John Scott McCauley Jr.
>Tritium is far easier to handle (a beta emitter) than a neutron source
>such as Pu-Be or 252Cf. Properly encased tritium should show no
>external radioactivity.
>
>
>
>
>Mark
Very interesting: this attitude towards the relative safety of neutron sources
seems to be the opposite of the policy here.
True, a big advantage of using a neutron generator is that you can turn
it off (you still might have to check for radiation caused by activation).
Pu-Be, Am-Be, and 252Cf sources are always 'on'. So you have to take
precautions. For a 5E7 n/s 252Cf source the following precautions are
typical:
1) source is on tether (aviation cable)
2) source is handled at end of 10 foot fishing pole.
3) source is stored in a 6'x6' concrete drum when not in use
4) source is transfered in a 3'x3' steel pig filled with
moderator when moved from room to room. Total weight of pig
is 2300 lbs.
5) cannot use source alone
6) radiation monitors must be worn.
The big safety advantage of the above type of source is that these sources
are very difficult to break open (plus easy to locate if missing). For
example, the 1" long x 0.5" dia source will not be dented if the 2300
lb pig rolls over it.
Now lets look at sealed DT neutron generators:
1) 5-10 Ci of Tritium might get out if tube is ruptured. (likely
most will be retained by getter system).
2) Tritium can diffuse through parts of the generator (target
cooling cap) and get into the target cooling system. We
are decomissioning a DT generator now and large parts of
it are Tritium contaminated.
Of course it is all relative -- those old glow in the dark emergency exit
signs have 20 Ci or so of Tritium in them.
Hope this helps,
Scott
P.S. Pu-Be is now very difficult to buy. Am-Be is much safer, so they say.
Raul Baragiola
Has anyone information about the outcome?
Raul A. Baragiola \Internet: ra...@virginia.edu
Dept. Nuclear Engnr. and Engnr. Physics \Phone: (804)-982-2907
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22901 \ Fax: (804)-924-6270
Paul L Schauble
I'm told that you can get neutrons by bombarding Be with electrons. What's
the reaction here?
++PLS
Mark H. North
Well, I've not heard of this and it sounds pretty unlikely. Standard neutron
generators are Pu-Be, Po-Be and Am-Be. In all three cases the active ingre-
dient (Pu, Po or Am) is surrounded by Be. These are alpha emitters which
produce neutrons by knocking one loose from Be on impact. Other neutron
producers are any fission source such as 252Cf. One chooses a source by
what energy characteristics of the neutrons one requires and other
subtlties.
Mark