John,
I have discussed this with a few colleagues here and with one of the authors (Dan Hollenbach).
The combination of fission power (estimated) and distance to earth's core, is such that the neutrino signal would be very weak, but perhaps not impossible to discern above background with a sufficiently large instrument, over time (neutrino detectors are directional & can be "pointed" away from the sun - by far the dominant source....).
Also, my reply to Kim was:
...no, (there wouldn't be readily detectable physical evidence of it here at the surface, such as a natural abundance of plutonium isotopes and fission products that would well up due to volcanism) because the half-lives of fission products are too short (they decay long before reaching anywhere near the surface) and long-lived transuranics like Pu-244 are heavy elements which stay "down there." However, Hollenbach and Herndon write that "deep-Earth production of helium, having 3 He/ 4 He ratios within the range observed from deep-mantle sources, is demonstrated to be a consequence of nuclear fission."
Jaro
-----Original Message-----
From: Jacobus, John (OD/ORS) [mailto:jacobusj@ors.od.nih.gov]
Sent: Friday July 19, 2002 8:34 AM
To: 'Kim D. Merritt'; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Subject: RE: RE: Nuclear Planet in DISCOVER
Better yet, what about the quantity of neutrinos that would be escaping from
the "earth" reactor. One technique to study neutrinos involves converting
old mines into huge scintillation detectors.
-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
3050 Traymore Lane
Bowie, MD 20715-2024