EQF,
A group of scientists has published a paper in Science (March 8) - Rusi P. Taleyarkhan of
Oak Ridge National Laboratory and colleagues claiming to have triggered nuclear fusion
in bubbles using sonoluminescence. There are skeptics, certainly and a team of
other scientists have argued the case against, but apparently this is quite feasible
given the right circumstances.
Taleyarkhan and several of his Oak Ridge colleagues collaborated on the research
with scientists from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institude in Troy, N.Y, and the Russian
Academy of Sciences in Ufa.
In ths work, the collaborators used bursts of neutrons to fabricate clouds of
short-lived bt extraordinarily large sonoluminescence bubbles in aceton. In some
tests they used deuterated acetone, in which deuteriu, atoms replace the hydrogen
ones.
Under extreme pressure and temps such as at the sun's center, deuterium atoms fues in a reaction whose products include tritium and neutrons. Using detectors the team
looked for surges of neutron emissionis that correlated with the light flashes of
collapsing bubbles. They report that flasks contain deuterated acetone show significant
excess of such events compared with background levels, but flasks of ordinary
acetone didn't. Moreover the team observed a buildup of tritium only in the
deuterated acetone.
The paper underwent extensive peer review before being published as do all papers
in Science.
Water especially deep ocean water contains an excess of deuterium. There is
no reason to believe that the same principals could not be applied to heavy
water as to acetone. The acetone was not used because of it's chemical makeup
but because of it's convenience for the work.
I recommend reading the entire Science article before making up your mind on this.