[NewCandle] foil roll experiments

[Nick Reiter]

Hello all,

Been off for the long holiday weekend and managed to sneak off to the basement laborium to try some tests with foil rolls and the uranyl acetate.

First of all, I did want to mention that I tried Horace's suggested test, of putting some new foil rolls into the presumably partially reacted or spent solution from the original Pixie 23 bucket.

Upon initial insertion, I again looked carefully for the rise in count rate, along the lines of what I saw before.  And indeed, while less in magnitude (an increase of maybe 1.5x instead of 2x+) the effect reproduced.  I immediately pulled a roll back out to see if it had gotten that "hot" in a short time by itself, and oddly, no - very little count rate noted, barely above ambient (30 to 50 cpm)

That was about a week ago.  Over the next few days after that, I pulled the same roll periodically, and have seen it become slowly more radioactive, up to about 2500cpm from the "roll end" and about 1000 cpm from the side.

Overall suggesting that the mechanics were reproducing, albeit with less intensity, presumably because the bucket solution was already partially reacted and "spent".

Now yesterday, I set up a more controlled separate experiment in a Nalgene 500ml graduated cylinder.

I attached the counter tube firmly to the side of the cylinder, looking "in", and took first a background count with 250ml of distilled water inside.  Typical 30 to 50 cpm.  I poured out the water, and poured in 250 ml of ~.1M uranyl acetate (fresh) in H2O.  Solution-only reading was between 80 and 100cpm.  This was poured out, and a single 75ft foil roll was slipped into the graduated cylinder.  The uranyl acetate solution was then oured back in, down through the center hole and allowed to rise up and wick up through the foil.

Within about 3 or 4 minutes, as the solution was wetting into the roll (as adjudjed by the changing top level of the liquid just above the foil, the cpm on the counter tube climbed up to dance between 150 and 200cpm.

It looks like a legitimate effect, but what mechanism would produce it, I don't kow.  In a modestly controlled geometry, there appears to be an enhancement of emission rate from weak uranyl acetate as it permeates between aluminum foil roll turns.  Again, I ponder - is this a Casimir force related effect?  Or some coherency of emission from geometry of reflection?  Or hey, anyone up for ORANUR?

N