My previous attempt to accelerate natural decay of Fe-55 was inconclusive due to massive ablation of the source caused by the corona discharge in air.

To mitigate the corona discharge problem I have made a PTFE insert to go around the cable and a metal disk to make tight even contact with the Fe-55 disc – Fig. 1-2.

Unfortunately, the PTFE enclosure was not airtight and was creating loud corona in air. So I have covered it with silicone to seal. The silicone, however, also failed to insulate the sample from the corona discharge. Therefore I have sealed the tip again and dipped the cable into a bucket filled with transformer oil – Fig. 3.

Yet even the transformer oil was not good enough to completely insulate the sample. Small current was still flowing and the oil was circulating. Either my transformer oil was not clean enough (this was the oil I used to insulate my x-ray transformer during my attempt to replicate the Sternglass’ neutron synthesis experiment) or the oil was not good enough to handle the +130 kV the power supply was producing. The entire setup is shown on FIg. 4.

I have used Spellman SL power supply controlled by a DC power supply (set at 6.7V) to produce positive 130 kV DC at the tip of the HV cable in contact with the Fe-55 sample. I have verified the voltage with the HV probe.

I have kept the sample under voltage for 23 hours straight. When I removed the sample from the bucket (Fig. 1-2) the damage was evident. The discharge was minuscule as I could not hear it aside for the infrequent static crackling and circulation of oil in the bucket. Yet the discharge ate through the silicone and caused some charring. I did not spot any changes on the Fe-55 disk but the oil got inside and I cannot rule out the ablation.

X-ray counts of the exposed sample were much-much smaller than before the exposure: 600 CPS vs 1500 CPS, Fig. 5-6.

Obviously this is a huge change, which rendered the source all but useless. On one hand this is exactly the result I was looking for. I expect the exposure to high static DC potential to accelerate the rate of natural radioactive decay, which I should be able to observe by exposing the Fe-55 source to positive 140 kV potential. On the other hand because the transformer oil got inside of the enclosure and there was a small discharge and leakage current I cannot rule out the sample ablation. Therefore the experiment is yet again inconclusive.

What I need to do next is to get a new Fe-55 source and insulate the sample better to where there is no corona discharge at all. Maybe pack it with teflon paste. Or dip the enclosure in fresh transformer oil. Or place the sample in vacuum (in this order). Stay tuned for the next experiment.