Of course, such experiments would not be without their own difficulties. The various state variables are changing rapidly and it is necessary to have accurate diagnostics and simulations of the thermodynamic evolution of an event, including departures from equilibrium. The reaction rates are so sensitive to temperature that it will be difficult to know the burn temperature to sufficient accuracy. It is possible to envision, however, a relative measurement of several species at once, making it possible to fix the temperature with the most sensitive reaction. Also, these are explosive environments not easily amenable to conventional nuclear counting techniques.
Backgrounds are also certain to develop.
Nevertheless, it is possible to develop a class of nuclear experiments in which a catcher blanket that could collect radioactive products would be placed at some distance from the capsule explosion. The catcher material could later be removed from the chamber and counted for accumulated radioactivity. The final step would be to compare the nuclear yields produced in the experiment with the yields predicted by applying thermonuclear network codes to the conditions one believes occurred in the event. This comparison could be used to test both the codes and the reliability of the thermonuclear reaction rate data. It could also aid as a diagnostic of the capsule history, because the thermonuclear reaction rates are quite temperature sensitive.