Neutron emission during heavy water electrolysis

Abstract

The emission of fast neutrons by recoil protons (0.02–3 MeV energies) during the electrolysis of heavy water was studied experimentally using iron, stainless steel, titanium, titanium-vanadium, platinum and palladium cathodes. Normal low-background measuring equipment was used (sensitivity up to 3 × 10⁻⁴ Bq/mL) with a proportional methane counter, volume 4 L, pressure 2 × 10⁵ N/m² which was calibrated with a californium source of 2 × 10⁷ n/s; the registration efficiency was 7%. Statistical processing of the results using the Student criterion failed to detect any neutron flux of more than 0.04 n/s from our various conditions of electrolysis with a reliability of 99.9%.