Earthtech International to donate isotopic analysis to MFMP [UPDATE #1- Frank Acland agrees to be gatekeeper]

It is with great excitement that we can report that we have been offered isotopic analysis by Earthtech International in Texas, US.

They have an Amptek X-123SDD and operator that is at our disposal.

This will help us explore if there is any transmutation, nuclear synthesis, fusion or fission going on in our experiments. The reasons we pursued this is that firstly, we had lost access to this kind of analysis very early on don't have the funds or resources to do it ourselves. Secondly, we had notification indications that lighter elements may be present in ash and we needed to verify this. Thirdly, the importance of this kind of study was proven by the Mitsubishi and Technova work. 

Hopefully it will enable us to see if any LENR happened and give us clues as to what may be going on in different experiments.

Proposal

Mathieu Valat had some questions for the team at Earthtech:

Q1. what is the source that will be used?

X-rays, usually from an x-ray tube which goes up to 40 kV but we also have an Am-241 source which emits 60 keV radiation

Q2. Can you sharpen, shape or collimate the excitation source?

Yes, to some degree.  We can also mask off the sample leaving only a small area exposed.  The choice of mask material depends upon the elements being analyzed.   1 or 2 mm^2 is the minimum practical spot size for masking.    On the other hand, if the sample itself is small we can support it on a thin plastic film and analyze very small things, especially with the x-ray tube which can put out very intense radiation. 

Q3. What is the minimal spot size?

We should get a decent signal from the 200 micron wire.

Q4. How many sample do you envision you would be able to analyse?

The analysis is not laborious for us, so we can analyse many samples. 

Q5. What level of vacuum the chamber used for that purpose will have?

Our XRF system does not have a vacuum chamber.  It operates in air.  As a result, the lightest element we can see is aluminum and that is with poor sensitivity.

Q6. What amplitude of sample/stage max displacement is it capable of?

There is no sample stage.  We simply place the sample manually and position it with our hands (with the x-ray tube off, of course).

Q7. would you agree on publishing a comprehensive paper with us? ;)

Yes, of course.

Further Notes on their capability

Please understand that our XRF capabilities are only semi-quantitative. We take a spectrum, identify the peaks and estimate the concentrations very roughly.   In the case of elements that are thin coatings on a wire, for example, it becomes even less quantitative.   Initially we would probably say things like “not detected”,  “very low level”,  “moderate amount”,  “large amount”, etc.   However, if something interesting and worthwhile shows up, we could endeavor to make known standard samples and then we could make a quantative analysis for selected elements.

You should also be aware that XRF is sensitive to the weight concentration of an element in a bulk sample of infinite thickness (usually just a few mm).  Detection limits vary with element but are usually around 10 ppm at best. For thin samples, such as the coatings you might create on wires.  XRF is sensitive to the mass per unit area of an element   For most elements “thin” is in the range of 1-20 mg/cm^2 and the detection limit is usually a few micrograms/cm^2.

Looking forward

This is such a generous offer and will help everyone to better understand if anything has happened or will happen in our experiments. The importance of having access to this kind of resource is highlighted by the recent Rossi report that we shall address after we have properly reviewed it - one challenge in that respect is that the analysis on offer will not be able to see Lithium but it should see Nickel changes.

Thanks once again goes out to Earthtech International for this bold move.

If any other organisations are able to offer key resources for our effort, we would love to hear from you.

UPDATE #1- Frank Acland agrees to be gatekeeper

We are very happy to announce that Frank Acland, the very same creator of this site, has agreed to act as gatekeeper for our double blind isotopic studies. None of the MFMP have met him and there is no commercial arrangement between us. We do feel we can trust him to act honourably.

Process we proposed

1. Samples groups of 3+ will be packaged in a non-transparent container (so that powder/wire nature of the contents cannot be assessed by him) and assigned an alpha numeric code that will be published on our site.
2. Frank will, at random, assign a name of an LENR researcher to each sample out of respect for the contributions that so many scientist around the world have made in obscurity to this much maligned field of research. Frank will retain in secret the "rosetta stone" index as to which name is what sample.
3. The analysing lab, after they have concluded their analysis will publish the results as a zip file with 256bit AES encryption.
4. After the publication of the results, Frank will release the "rosetta stone"
5. After that, the analysing lab will release the password.
6. The analysing lab will be asked to retain a fraction of the sample for their verification and return the rest to MFMP to allow verification if needed.

This should provide very robust protection from any fraud by any party - neither us or the analysing lab will know what sample is what until after the secure release of the data has been made.