Cold Fusion and the Energy Crisis: to be or not to be?

Foreign Policy Journal ^ | November 30, 2012 | Dr. Stoyan Sarg

[2ndDivisionVet]

While the year 2011 will be remembered for the remarkable progress in cold fusion achieved in Italy and more particularly by the E-cat reactors of Andrea Rossi, the year 2012 will be remembered for the slow progress of its recognition by the mainstream establishments.

Cold fusion, known also as LENR, is a new and safer type of nuclear energy that will rival the currently used unsafe nuclear power. Its advantages are unparalleled: a lack of radioactive waste and byproducts that could be used for a weapon; abundance of fuel (nickel) without the need for mining of radioactive uranium with the accompanying environmental contamination; much cheaper and scalable reactors from small to large size with the possibility of also being used as an energy source for a spaceship. The latter option is envisioned by NASA.

The presently used nuclear plants based on the uranium fission process are highly expensive installations in the range of billions of dollars. Such a high cost is driven by the special design requirements for safety and maintenance including the management of the radioactive waste. The price of nuclear energy includes not only this cost spanned for the time of active operation of the nuclear plant but also the cost of uranium mining and processing.

Nuclear energy has been commercially adopted since 1951. For the past 60 years, the amount of radioactive waste produced by all nuclear reactors on the Earth is about 225,000 metric tons and it grows by 12,000 tons per year. Such concentrated radioactive waste has not existed naturally in the Earth since the time of its creation about 4.5 billions year ago. In many nuclear plants, the radioactive waste from burned fuel rods is temporarily stored in the plant for an undetermined duration...

[ClearCase_guy]

the remarkable progress in cold fusion achieved in Italy and more particularly by the E-cat reactors of Andrea Rossi

Did Rossi ever do anything more than announce remarkable progress? I always had the impression that he would schedule a big event, and then announce an unfortunate delay. Did he ever show anything substantive?

[fuente]

Ah geeze, not this sh!t again...

[fuente]

Ah geeze, not this sh!t again...

[dinodino]

Waiting for Obama to give stimulus funds to Andrea Rossi...

[exDemMom]

Ah, more wonderful LENR news—I had thought that this scam had run its course.

Of course, this is just an article extolling the virtues of cold fusion, and it contains no new or substantive information on Rossi. And the author of this piece, if we are to believe his credentials, is one who should definitely know better than to fall for LENR/Rossi.

How long has it been since Rossi made any kind of public appearance? Is he still using random addresses in apartment and office buildings as his “business” addresses? Or is he lying low hoping that fraud investigators won’t notice him?

Well, nothing new, I guess it’s not time to break out the popcorn yet.

[mfish13]

More fairy tales.

[ZX12R]

Beating a dead palladium electrode. Why oh why does this still get attention? I guess the show "Ghost Hunters" provides a clue.

Seagull, out.

[Windflier]

Of related interest to the skeptics:

Mitsubishi Reports Toyota Replication [of Iwamura's LENR transmutation of elements]

[Kevmo]

The Cold Fusion/LENR Ping List

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/coldfusion/index?tab=articles

Keywords: ColdFusion; LENR; lanr; CMNS
business, news, extended, tech

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http://lenr-canr.org/

[exDemMom]

More fairy tales.

Yes. And apparently the people who point out that the emperor is, in fact, naked, are known as "seagulls" in the cold fusion world.

[Moonman62]

At least this was posted in the bloggers section, rather than breaking news.

[Moonman62]

How long has it been since Rossi made any kind of public appearance? Is he still using random addresses in apartment and office buildings as his “business” addresses? Or is he lying low hoping that fraud investigators won’t notice him?

Last I heard of him is when his investors backed out after they determined that his little kettle boiler doesn't work.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2930197/posts

[Moonman62]

There hadn’t been any cold fusion articles on FR for six weeks, and then there’s three in the last ten days that all mention Rossi the con artist. He gets more mention on FR than Ronald Reagan.

[Toddsterpatriot]

Last I heard of him is when his investors backed out after they determined that his little kettle boiler doesn't work.

That's a shame, I heard it released more energy than any possible chemical reaction.

[Moonman62]

That's a shame, I heard it released more energy than any possible chemical reaction.

I heard that the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide would provide more than enough energy to explain Rossi's kettle boiler.

[Toddsterpatriot]

I heard that the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide would provide more than enough energy to explain Rossi's kettle boiler.

Well, it's true that over the counter H₂O₂ had more than enough energy. I guess that earlier claim was a bit off.

[Moonman62]

Heat is a catalyst for H2O2 decomposition. It’s probably just a coincidence that Rossi has to hook up his magical rusty can to the grid and heat it up first.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.

Nuclear energy has been commercially adopted since 1951. For the past 60 years, the amount of radioactive waste produced by all nuclear reactors on the Earth is about 225,000 metric tons and it grows by 12,000 tons per year. Such concentrated radioactive waste has not existed naturally in the Earth since the time of its creation about 4.5 billions year ago.

The way to detect nuclear reactions in the purported cold fusion experiments is by the detection of neutrons -- no neutrons, no nuclear reactions. Period. Excuses may be made, but that's The Law for ya.

Neutrons are electrically neutral, and can't be corralled using electromagnetism, so neutron production always leads to radioactivity in the containment apparatus and the machinery close to the reaction chamber, regardless of fission or fusion. This means that, even if cold fusion is for real, radioactive waste will be produced.

And that is A Big If anyway.

Beware of sheep-shearing wolves.

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[ckilmer]

On the neutron thing — you’ll want to pay attention to a process called dense plasma focus. Here’s a google search.http://bit.ly/SvLSOt

They’re part of a family of fusion research that creates fusion without neutrons. They claim their reactor will convert the energy from fusion directly into electricity —without any radioactivity—rather than using the reaction to create heat for a boiler. They claim they have two out of three steps for making a fusion reactor completed.

A lot of claims going on. But their fusion experiments seem to offer a more plausible path to fusion power than iter or lenr

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks ck, but the operative phrase there is “They claim”. It reminds me of the Asimov short story “Pate de Fois Gras”.

This is interesting:

http://lawrencevilleplasmaphysics.com/

[snip] Our lead project is the development of an ecologicaly [sic] safe fusion energy generator using a device called the dense plasma focus (DPF) and hydrogen-boron fuel, an approach we call “Focus Fusion”. This work was initially funded by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is now backed by over forty private investors including the Abell Foundation of Baltimore. LPP’s patented technology and peer-reviewed science are guiding the design of this technology for this virutally [sic] unlimited source of clean energy that can be significantly cheaper than any other energy sources currently in use. [/snip]

[SunkenCiv]

And guess what — neutrons:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dense_plasma_focus

[snip] Intense bursts of X-rays and charged particles are emitted, as are nuclear fusion neutrons,[1] when operated using deuterium. There is ongoing research that demonstrates potential applications as a soft X-ray source[2] for next-generation microelectronics lithography, surface micromachining, pulsed X-ray and neutron source for medical and security inspection applications and materials modification,[3] among others... For nuclear weapons applications, dense plasma focus devices can be used as an external neutron source.[4] Other applications include simulation of nuclear explosions (for testing of the electronic equipment) and a short and intense neutron source useful for non-contact discovery or inspection of nuclear materials (uranium, plutonium). [/snip]

[muawiyah]

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=les%3Beqn%2Crate_low%3D0.035%2Crate_high%3D0.035%2Cmin_length%3D2%2Ccconf%3D1.2%2Csecond_pass%3Dfalse%2Cnum_suggestions%3D1%2Cignore_bad_origquery%3Dtrue%2Conetoken%3Dfalse&gs_nf=3&gs_rn=0&gs_ri=hp&gs_mss=%22andrea%20rossi%22%20and%20%22Matteo%20Messina%20Denaro&cp=42&gs_id=3r&xhr=t&q=%22andrea%20rossi%22%20and%20%22Matteo%20Messina%20Denaro%22&pf=p&tbo=d&sclient=psy-ab&oq=%22andrea+rossi%22+and+%22Matteo+Messina+Denaro%22&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.1355325884,d.b2U&fp=58929b6891e33653&bpcl=39967673&biw=925&bih=450 ~ about 1200 stories in various periodicals where both Andrea Rossi and Matteo Messina Denaro are mentioned ~ but not quite in the same story. Rossi is pushing LENR, but Denaro owns and uses Windmills to launder Mafia money in Sicily. Rossi had an adversarial relationship with Denaro (aka dinodino?) earlier in his career ~ this is the guy who got him prosecute for waste oil pollution ~ had he but gone into windmills eh! My skepticism of the Rossi critics starts with Denaro ~ you really have to prove you have nothing to do with Denaro first.

[exDemMom]

~ about 1200 stories in various periodicals where both Andrea Rossi and Matteo Messina Denaro are mentioned ~ but not quite in the same story. Rossi is pushing LENR, but Denaro owns and uses Windmills to launder Mafia money in Sicily. Rossi had an adversarial relationship with Denaro (aka dinodino?) earlier in his career ~ this is the guy who got him prosecute for waste oil pollution ~ had he but gone into windmills eh! My skepticism of the Rossi critics starts with Denaro ~ you really have to prove you have nothing to do with Denaro first.

I've never heard of this Denaro. I don't need to. All I have to do is look at Rossi's behavior, and check what he says against actual scientific knowledge, and I have all the material I need to be critical of Rossi. Both his mannerisms and his grandiose claims are pretty typical con man behavior.

[muawiyah]

Denaro is the top mafioso in Sicily ~ which is no small fact. He’s been one of the big movers in the world of WINDMILLS. His reach extends all the way to America ~ these guys don’t like any competition.