Colorado School of Mines Low Energy Nuclear Physics Project technical progress report

This report summarizes the activity and accomplishments of the Colorado School of Mines Low Energy Nuclear Physics project during the calendar year 1989. Many of the projects which were anticipated in the original grant proposal have been completed. Among these completed projects we include of study of the radiative capture of low energy protons on 6Li, 7Li, 9Be, and 11B. Preliminary measurements of the branching ratios and yields of these reactions were reported in last year's Technical Progress Report. These measurements are now complete and have been used to extract the respective astrophysical S-factors and the corresponding thermonuclear reactivities. While not complete, progress has been made in some of the other originally proposed studies. Among these include a fairly extensive study of the interaction of low energy deuterons with 6Li and 7Li. In the course of this study we have made a solid observation of the Oppenheimer-Phillips effect in the D-6Li system. Progress has been made in our study of the radiative capture of alpha particles by deuterons, 6Li, and 7Li but considerable work remains in these studies. In our earlier reports we noted the observation of d-d reactions during the bombardment of deuterated targets with energetic beams of protons, alpha particles, and other light-to-medium ions. We believe we now understand this phenomenon and feel it has some fairly significant consequences both for our studies and for those of other researchers. Our susceptibility to mob hysteria led us to invest a significant effort in cold nuclear fusion, both employing a fairly unique accelerator based approach at CSM and as one of the gamma ray diagnosticians on the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory's Cold Fusion Task Force