Jones Beene wrote:
Wrong. You are not paying attention. There is nothing even close to
stoichiometry when a loaded cathode dumps 100% deuterium rapidly.
The loading can take hours to days to accomplish, and the unloading is a
fractional second. Most of the oxygen from those many hours has already been
expelled through the pressure valve . . .
In a normal run at SRI, nothing is expelled through the pressure
valve. These are closed cells. They detected a leak in this case.
Anyway, if there was a leak there would be no orphaned oxygen left,
so I do not see how it could explode.
Internal pressure from a rapid release of deuterium, caused by recalescence
- not from an explosion - not yet at least - can cause a severe
overpressurization, breaking the seals, causing initial influx of air as the
oxidizer when seals are damaged. This has little to do with stoichiometry.
If the seals broke, the gas would escape, and that would be that.
Lots of cells break for various reasons, usually at the emergency
valve. It does not cause an explosion. I guess these are mostly low
pressure cells, whereas this one was ~30 atm.
- Jed
