In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.Subject: Re: Stripping
Date: Mar 18, 4:51 pm
Poster: Richard HullOn Mar 18, 4:51 pm, Richard Hull wrote:
>Ely,
Thanks for your input. Proportional mode tests might be best for pinning the matter down inside the chamber. Also, we will have to conclude that the activation inside the chamber will be minimimal with all but the most thermal of neuts.
This means that the activation should be minimal, plus if the half lives of the radio tantalum and iron byproducts, (whatever they may be - Gotta consult my chart of the Nuclides), are short enough then a week might send most through a couple of half lives and quiet the chamber a bit.
All real fusions in the chamber are 50% tritium builders and tritium is a 9 year item. So the simplest test would be to valve off the chamber for a couple of weeks and graph its activity level over a week or two. If the levels fall percipitously over the activates half life, then we know we have a lot of thermal neuts produced in the chamber during a run and high activation. However, if the level remains rather high with only a slight backoff in radiation over the activates period, then we gotta' realize that few thermals are produced, there is little activation and that tritium is the principle component formed.
Gotta check all these things out. I never forgot your portional counter suggestion, but thanks again for the reminder.
Richard Hull
>> If stripping can produce fast neuts, our counting effort may be in trouble. If not, counting should be a solid indicator of real fusion, but neutron activation of the chamber walls with thermal neuts might fake out a tritium signature.
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>RH,
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>We had touched on the use of running your self-analyzing geiger counter in proportional mode. Even with a single channel analyzer, you just may be able to spot the peak(s) characteristic of Tritium versus, say, radio- tantalum or iron or their daughter radionuclides, etc. Besides, you can measure the activity after flushing out any Tritium and compare with the count from before (allowing for elemental isotope decay, of course) to pinpoint the Tritium contribution. Wouldn't that work?