Electron screening in nickel
In order to further investigate electron screening phenomenon we studied proton induced nuclear reactions over an energy range from 1.35 to 3.08 MeV for different environments: Ni metal and NiO insulator. The measurements were based on observation of the {gamma}-ray yields of {sup 59,61,63,64,65}Cu and {sup 58,60,62}Ni. Also, we have studied the decay of {sup 61}Cu produced in the reaction {sup 60}Ni(p,{gamma}), in order to find a possible decay rate perturbation by atomic electrons and found a small difference in half-life for metallic compared to oxide environment, respectively. The present results clearly show that the metallic environment affects the fusion reactions at low energy and that it might also affect the decay rate.