Terrestrial Nuclear Processes: zero momentum light element reactors

by John P. Wallace, Ganapati R. Myneni, Robert D. Pike

Nuclear processes are assumed to generate high energy radioactive products that are easy to detect. That is a poor assumption because in nature many more pathways can be sampled. Actually even the fusion process in our Sun at the core is a relative low level process that does not compete with the metabolic output of heat from the human body on an equivalent mass basis. The scale of the Sun is required to supply us its abundant output. Nuclear processes that do not leave easily detected radioactive decay products will only leave a heat signature. There is now extensive experimental evidence that such processes exist and are of a nuclear origin. The exact details of the nuclear mechanisms involved and the sequence of events required to extract useful quantities of heat are unknown. The earth and its tectonic and volcanic behaviour has a number of open questions to be answered by what local thermal sources drive these processes. By tracing chemistries to likely nuclear processes some insight can be gained into reactions that have been ignored. On a more basic level there is a great deal not understood about the dynamics within light stable nuclei that is now being explored with accelerator experiments. When an adequate quantum mechanical analysis of the nucleus exists these low energy process will then be understood.

152 pages, Paperback

First published March 11, 2012

About the author

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John P. Wallace, born 1837