Detection of weak radiation involving generation and progress of water tree

AbstractIt is well known that generation and progress of water trees in XLPE cables are strongly enhanced by inorganic impurities. We have investigated the effect of such impurities in the water treeing process and reported the experimental results as follows: (1) the anomalous increase or decrease in several kinds of inorganic elements was observed in water treed XLPE samples, (2) a distinctive relationship was found for the mass numbers for the elements, and (3) the isotopic content of the elements such as Zn deviated over 6% from the naturally occurring level. These results suggest that some unknown phenomena play a role in the formation of water trees, such as cold fusion or nuclear transmutation in condensed matter. In order to study the relationship between water trees and these phenomena, we attempted to detect neutrons, γ‐rays, or X‐rays accompanying the generation and progress of water trees in XLPE samples. In the experiments, weak and burst‐like radiation, apparently low‐energy γ‐rays or X‐rays, was often detected by BF3 and/or CdZnTe counter. The radiation tended to be detected in the samples with a large number of water trees generated by supplying sufficient amounts o