Comments on 'Piezonuclear decay of thorium' by F. Cardone et. al

TL;DR

This paper critically examines claims that ultrasound exposure increases thorium decay rates, finding the evidence inconclusive and suggesting additional tests to validate the hypothesis of piezonuclear reactions.

Contribution

It provides a critical analysis of previous experimental claims and proposes further testing methods to verify piezonuclear decay phenomena.

Findings

Data does not justify discarding the null hypothesis

Evidence is inconclusive and contradictory

Additional rigorous tests are recommended

Abstract

Subjecting a solution of 228Th to ultrasound (20 kHz, 100W), Cardone et al. [Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 1956] claim to observe an increase in the transformation or decay rate of 228Th by a factor of 104. The evidence provided seems however far from conclusive and in part contradictory to the claims made. In fact, looking at the presented data we find it cannot be taken as justification to discard the null hypothesis, namely, that the data from exposed and non exposed samples are drawn from the same distribution. We suggest a number of additional tests that should be made in order to improve the quality of the study and test the hypothesis of so-called piezonuclear reactions.