Posted on 03/14/2013 1:27:00 PM PDT by Kevmo
Tiny Nuclear Reactions Inside Compact Fluorescent Bulbs?
Harmless low-energy nuclear reactions may be taking place routinely inside of compact fluorescent lightbulbs, according to a physicist whose theories have NASA researchers abuzz with the prospect of cheap, non-polluting energy.
Nuclear reactions may be responsible for an unusual fingerprint of mercury isotopes in used fluorescents that can identify environmental pollution from the bulbs, said Lewis Larsen, a Chicago physicist associated with the Widom-Larsen Theory, which explores slow nuclear reactions among elements that are not radioactive.
“Unbeknownst to the general public, dynamically active nuclear processes are presently occurring in tens of millions of households worldwide,” Larsen told me.
“Fortunately, there aren’t any radiological health risks associated with CFLs because no hard radiation is emitted from them, ” Larsen said, “ and no environmentally hazardous, long-lived radioactive isotopes are typically created by LENRs (low energy nuclear reactions).”
Larsen has suspected low energy nuclear reactions occur in CFLs, he told me, and is encouraged by a February study of used bulbs that found isotopes of mercury that more conventional theories cannot explain.
NASA: A Nuclear Reactor To Replace Your Water Heater Jeff McMahonContributor
The authors of that study analyzed used fluorescent bulbs looking for a unique fingerprint of mercury isotopes. If they could find a unique fingerprint, researchers could identify mercury pollution in the environment that comes from discarded fluorescents:
“All fluorescent lamps use mercury (Hg) and can be a source of Hg to the environment when broken,” write the authors, led by Chris Mead of Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability, in a February issue of Environmental Science and Technology (subscription required).
As compact fluorescents command a larger share of the lighting market, the researchers expect mercury pollution from the bulbs to increase:
“ “The share of atmospheric anthropogenic Hg emissions represented by fluorescent lightbulbs in the United States is 1–5 percent. Only a third of fluorescent lightbulbs are recycled. As fluorescent lighting continues to supplant incandescent lighting, and as emissions from large point sources of Hg, such as coal-fired power plants and municipal waste incinerators are reduced, fluorescents will become an increasingly important source of Hg to the environment. Therefore, a method to detect and quantify Hg derived from fluorescents would be very useful.”
The researchers found their unique fingerprint for mercury from fluorescent bulbs. But they can’t explain why it’s so unique:
“The trapped Hg of used CFL show unusually large isotopic fractionation (the distribution of mercury into its various isotopes), the pattern of which is entirely different from that which has been observed in previous Hg isotope research aside from intentional isotope enrichment.”
Larsen believes he knows why the mercury isotopes in used CFLs are different:
“When viewed through the conceptual lens of the Widom-Larsen theory, Mead et al.’s carefully collected Hg isotope data suggests that low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) transmutations may actually be occurring at extremely low rates in CFLs during normal operation,” he said.
And that should make the idea of home nuclear reactors less frightening, Larsen said.
“If this outstanding new data is substantiated by further experimentation, it provides yet more proof that LENRs are likely to be a truly ‘green,’ safe nuclear technology.”
Larsen hopes to demonstrate that low-energy nuclear reactions are safe, green and commonplace in part to distinguish them from fission reactions that produce dangerous ionizing radiation in conventional reactors. He has found evidence of LENRs occurring in lithium-ion batteries, catalytic converters, and naturally in bacterial processes and lightning.
Many researchers, including NASA scientists, are working on low-energy nuclear reactors that use non-hazardous fuels like nickel and hydrogen to produce energy and non hazardous by-products, like copper. I discuss the reactors in more detail in a prior post, NASA: A Nuclear Reactor To Replace Your Water Heater.
But if low energy nuclear reactions are so commonplace, why haven’t scientists noticed them before? In part because they haven’t looked. LENR activity is subtle, according to Larsen, and it “can only be readily detected and measured through the use of extraordinarily sensitive mass spectroscopy techniques on stable isotopes.”
“Consequently, for nearly 100 years LENR processes have effectively been hidden in plain sight from the vast majority of the scientific community.”
READ MORE:
However, when it comes to the topic at hand name anyone convicted of fraud in regard to peddling products.
Your part in this is what?
“The same mafia crowd went after Rossi with fraud charges.”
Ok, like I said, maybe that can explain one of the shady incidents of fraud in Rossi’s past, but what about the rest? What about his extensive fraud in the US when he was trying to bilk the government? The mafia made him do that too? And if so, then why would anyone believe the mafia isn’t pushing him to defraud more people this time around?
So, you see, your argument just isn’t sufficient to resolve the skepticism, in fact it would only increase it.
All above board and legal ~ not at all like the Sylindra deals ~ and fully accounted for.
Gentile had formerly been an assistant secretary for alternative energy (remember clean coal?),
I even tracked down Gentile to his home in Arlington so you guys could give him a call about Rossi ~ no idea if anyone called.
The Norwood angle was a little different. Rossi's base of operations in the US burned down ~ it was in a building that was either part of Norwood's office/industrial park or next door to it. That seems to be how they met. Norwood had close business ties to folks in Sweden who just happened to be in alternative energy research as well.
If you want a wheeler dealer try Gentile or Norwood. Rossi's just an engineer.
“name anyone convicted of fraud in regard to peddling products.”
I’m not going to follow your arbitrary standard. I’m not the government, so people are not innocent until proven guilty with me when it comes to credibility. Rossi may have escaped conviction, but the fact remains that over his “career”, he has formed at least three companies, taken in a sizable amount of cash, and hasn’t delivered a single product or service that has come close to living up to his touted specifications. That’s a con artist, whether or not he’s been convicted.
he has been quite successful with his small scale hazmat incinerator ~ that was the core of his business for many decades. you probably have one near where you work.
Ok, I’ll amend my comment then. Out of all the products and services he has touted, and collected money for, only one has actually lived up to the specifications. Still a con artist.
This is still about possible nuclear processes inside CFLs. Most of them are made in a handful of factories in China so it should be quite possible to evaluate every possible route for infiltration of different isotopes of mercury into the process ~ this site suggests that the naturally occuring isotopes are generally abundant in the same amount ~ http://www.webelements.com/mercury/isotopes.html ~ which means you can easily detect differences by comparing the abundance ratios in a given sample of mercury (assuming the use of the proper testing equipment). Taking a thousand samples and using statistical inference to deduce variations in isotope ratios, though crude (lacking precision) would raise an alarm ~
ha. energy conversion, shmenergy conversion. tho i suppose photosynthesis and weather are driven by the sun's energy and thus began the cycle of fossil fuels which means my car is CURRENTLY hot-fusion powered (unless of course you give credence to abiogenesis in which case it's probably FISSION powered...).
But my sidebar is just a snark. I've often pondered decay sequences and wondered if they couldn't be used to power something, and beta decay especially makes me wonder if there is some reversible process. The interesting thing is the extra little energy bumps the decay products get. You might wonder if quantum tunneling could trigger an shift into a different decay chain which has more steps thus resulting in more energy production. Certainly we can make it happen with neutrons or gamma.
That's why widom-larsen is intriguing for me. Presently the "anomalous" energy production just that, a hint of something unusual.
you’re catching on but there’s a way to go.
Really??? When was that?? I read the final reports from that work by the sponsoring agency, and I saw no evidence whatsoever of fraud. The tech didn't pan out when attempts were made to scale it up. That happens. 'Tain't fraud.
And this thread isn't about Rossi in ANY sense, so why drag him into it, other than the typical skeptopath wish to side-track or shut down any positive discussion of LENR.
“I read the final reports from that work by the sponsoring agency, and I saw no evidence whatsoever of fraud. The tech didn’t pan out when attempts were made to scale it up. That happens. ‘Tain’t fraud.”
Yeah, it happens pretty much every time with Rossi, which is why nobody with any sense thinks this guy is on the up and up.
“And this thread isn’t about Rossi in ANY sense, so why drag him into it, other than the typical skeptopath wish to side-track or shut down any positive discussion of LENR.”
He was brought up only because Mr. Kevmo tried to unfairly paint skeptics of his postings as “anti-science truthers”, when the real reason most everyone is skeptical of his posts is because of his endorsement of Rossi. He’s ruined his credibility by pushing that pie in the sky con artist for years, and now he wants to pretend that the people whose skepticism has, so far, proved warranted are the irrational ones. Sorry, but that tripe ain’t gonna sell around here.
There's a sort of a signature in the mafia response to any of these people ~ they usually claim their targets are frauds.
I think it's necessary for critics who claim fraud to put up or shut up about their own associations with organized crime figures in Italy.
Kevmo certainly has NOT "endorsed Rossi" at any time, and any assertion that he has is simply a lie. Kevmo's sole "sin" is not to immediately assume that Rossi is a fraud.
"He’s ruined his credibility by pushing that pie in the sky con artist for years, and now he wants to pretend that the people whose skepticism has, so far, proved warranted are the irrational ones."
See above. And I don't recall seeing your handle on any previous LENR threads, so how, precisely, is it that you know what Kevmo has "done for years"??
"Sorry, but that tripe ain’t gonna sell around here.
Neither is yours. You appear here, basically out of nowhere, pushing the standard skeptopath song and dance and you are suddenly empowered (self-appointed) to decide what is "gonna sell around here".
He's one of the lurkers Kevmo is always referencing.
You appear here, basically out of nowhere, pushing the standard skeptopath song and dance and you are suddenly empowered (self-appointed) to decide what is "gonna sell around here".
More name calling that gives away your insecurity.
More name calling
***You use verbs & adjectives, I use names. Both are against the rules. Significantly, on almost all of these LENR threads, the skeptopaths (name) break the rules first.
Thanks 4 Bumping The Thread T4BTT
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2965392/posts?page=19#19
“I think it’s necessary for critics who claim fraud to put up or shut up about their own associations with organized crime figures in Italy.”
I’m not even gonna touch that one, you have fun on your snipe hunt.
“Kevmo certainly has NOT “endorsed Rossi” at any time, and any assertion that he has is simply a lie. Kevmo’s sole “sin” is not to immediately assume that Rossi is a fraud.”
Hogwash. One doesn’t spend every thread calling anyone who voices an ounce of skepticism all sorts of names if you aren’t emotionally committed to the thing they are skeptical of. He really doesn’t have to put an endorsement in writing when he endorses him by his actions.
“And I don’t recall seeing your handle on any previous LENR threads, so how, precisely, is it that you know what Kevmo has “done for years”??”
I’ve posted on a few of the threads, I’m just not compelled to post on every thread that I read.
“You appear here, basically out of nowhere, pushing the standard skeptopath song and dance and you are suddenly empowered (self-appointed) to decide what is “gonna sell around here”.”
I’m not empowered to decide anything, the forum has already decided. That’s why it’s only three guys who ever have anything positive to say about this junk. Call the other 99% of FR “skeptopaths”, or whatever other silly names the three of ya come up with, but the jury seems to have spoken, long before I made my observation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.