Cold Fusion, H-3, neutrons

[Lester Slaback <Lester.Slaback@NIST.GOV>]

Some of the benefits from the cold fusion excitement were:
  1. everyone learned that D2O always has some tritium in it, including the 
pure D2O purchased from various supply houses.  Hence the presence of 
tritium is not evidence of fusion.
   2. even the relatively low voltages used can produce a few neutrons via 
phenomena that is well described in the literature.  Hence detecting a few 
neutrons, etc, etc.
  3. The folks who got their D2O from their local research reactor, even 
where it was from the 'clean' supply, had even higher initial tritium 
levels.  And some of them were really embarrassed when they announced 
results based strictly on post experiment results having not performed a 
'before' measurement.

Lots of fun.
Disclaimer:  the above are the personal musings of the author, and do not 
represent any past, present, or future position of NIST, the U.S. 
government, or anyone else who might think that they are in a position of 
authority.
Lester Slaback, Jr.  [Lester.Slaback@NIST.GOV]
NBSR Health Physics
Center for Neutron Research
NIST
100 Bureau Dr.  STOP 3543
Gaithersburg, MD  20899-3543
301 975-5810 voice
301 921-9847 fax

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