Posted on 11/02/2011 2:31:43 PM PDT by Kevmo
The Peak Oil Crisis: Cold Fusion Redux
By Tom Whipple
Wednesday, November 02 2011 01:19:52 PM
There is a fascinating drama taking place over in Bologna, Italy involving an engineer by the name of Andrea Rossi and a physicist, Sergio Focardi, who say they have developed an entirely new source of cheap, clean, energy. This energy is said to be produced by fusing nickel and hydrogen inside a low-cost, table-top-sized reactor. Moreover, the inventors say this device is already in limited commercial production and is being sold to customers with the first delivery being made to an unknown American buyer this week .
Now, most nuclear physicists believe that fusing nickel and hydrogen is impossible this side of extremely high temperatures, so Rossi's device cannot perform as he claims and some sort of sophisticated fraud is taking place. The claim of unverified cold fusion naturally has become controversial with charges and counter charges being hurled across the Internet. The validity of the claim that an unlimited supply of cheap, clean energy is available now is apparently too much for the mainstream media which has been strangely quiet about the affair .
The problem with the "scam theory" is that for the last 10 months, the developers have been putting on demonstrations of their device before groups of learned physicists and selected members of the press in an attempt to show that their "energy catalyzer" actually works. When the reactor is heated up, so much energy in the form of steam is emitted that, short of fraud, the only answer seems to be that nuclear fusion is indeed taking place. The amount of heat being reported and apparently verified by outside observers is simply too much for any known chemical reaction .
Support for the position that this is a fraud comes from the fact that so far only the inventors and their closest associates seem to know what is going on inside the reactor. Visiting physicists can verify that heat is coming out and that there are no obvious signs of something untoward, but this is not the same as having independent laboratories with full access to the technology declaring that it is for real .
If you are interested in the details of all this, the account in Wikipedia under "Energy Catalyzer" gives a reasonably balanced version of the story thus far .
Cheap, pollution-free energy could, in theory, reset the clock on global warming .
Following the cold fusion furor of 20 years ago in which the scientific establishment declared that low energy fusion was not believable, scattered pockets of ill-funded scientists continued cold fusion research, while the world of big science continued working on multi-billion dollar fusion projects involving magnetic containment and lasers. From time to time those working on cold fusion reported observing abnormal amounts of heat being emitted when they attempted to fuse nickel with hydrogen, but as nobody could explain what was happening, scant attention was paid to their reports. Focardi was among the scientists performing and reporting on these experiments over the last 20 years .
Somewhere around 2008 Rossi, who appears to be more of an entrepreneur than a scientist, is said to have come to Focardi with an idea of how the fusion of nickel and hydrogen could be sped up to the point where a commercially viable, energy producing, reactor could be built. Three years later demonstrations of such a device began .
Last Friday the story got even better when a demonstration of a larger device designed to produce 1 megawatt of power was held. At the end of the day, outside consultants working for an American firm or organization declared that the test was satisfactory and the working prototype was immediately sold to the unidentified American "customer." Skeptics say this "test" proved nothing as the identity of the testers and the customer were unknown and could be part of the scam which they fervently believe is taking place .
Rossi says more reactors will be delivered shortly. We should not have to wait long find out if indeed a major breakthrough has occurred. Rossi says he will sign research contracts with the universities of Bologna and Uppsala to explore the physics behind production of so much heat .
As anyone who has ever seen the old movies of hydrogen bombs being tested can tell you, gigantic amounts of energy can be obtained from the fusion of atoms. What would be remarkable, if this story pans out, is how energy could come from such a simple device - a container, some powdered nickel, some sort of catalyst (which some believe is electro-magnetic energy), a touch of hydrogen, and a heating element. It should be noted that thus far, nobody has reported any sign of lethal radiation flying out of the reactor or radioactive waste resulting from whatever is taking place inside .
If this development is for real, and we will not know for a while, parts of our understanding of nuclear physics will have to be rethought for it seems there is much more in nature to learn about. Cheap, pollution-free energy could, in theory, reset the clock on global warming for if these devices spread rapidly, the transition away from carbon-based energy might just happen in time to save the earth. Cheap energy would allow for cheap desalinization of water, cheap transport, cheap food, and a lot of other changes .
Needless to say, major industries -- coal, oil, nuclear, green, etc. -- and economic relationships between nations would be upset by a rapid transition away from increasing costly fossil fuels. What happens to oil in all this is hard to say. Complete transition to nuclear fusion would likely take decades to accomplish. High costs for fossil fuels would be a major incentive, but simply re-provisioning 7 or 8 billion people would be a major job. This would suggest that higher oil prices will remain a factor in our lives no matter what happens with other sources of energy.
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/coldfusion/index?tab=articles
http://www.fcnp.com/commentary/national/10419-the-peak-oil-crisis-cold-fusion-redux.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2800077/posts
Unfortunately, if Rossi hired a bunch of actors to pretend to be the customer reps, created an elaborate year-long special-effects-derived series of demos, bribed, hypnotised or otherwise fooled Focardi, Levi, Kullander, Essen, Bianchini, Stremmenos and convinced a bunch of Greek crooks to set up a dummy company called Defkalion to pretend to fight with him over the non-existent eCat, to perpetuate the illusion and spin it off into a competing mirror-scam and convinced his former partners to set up another company called Ampenergo to pretend that they had a contract for The Americas for a substantial sum or that they just did this with no proof because they have worked with Rossi and trust him because he’s such a fine fellow, arranged for Piantelli, Miley and a host of others to try to fool the world into thinking that cold fusion was real, got NASA, SPAWAR, The Defense Threat Reduction Agency and The Defense Intelligence Agency to say nice things about the field, got Bushnell to make a fool of himself, sold his profitable company to his ex-partners in order to spend that wealth on a multi-million dollar scam; certain that once he got all the above ducks in a row he would pretend to sell the first device and then reel in the true target of his dastardly plan – the second (this time genuine) buyer of a 1MW plant that will net him $2 million dollars until they want their money back or sucker a $100 million dollar deal under the table because he has experience in pulling the wool over all these idiotic eyes and knows that they will just take his word for it and not want to test if his 1MW plant can heat a small village without truckloads of coal or oil or a big fat electric cable coming into the container from beneath the floor (no you can’t lift the carpet!) and that, in order to pull this off, Rossi had to risk discovery by interviewing all the people he subsequently fooled so that he could only invite the gullible Professors and not the brilliant anonymous posters on the Internet who surely would have found him out – then all bets are off and I’m with the guys who think that Rossi is an idiot and they are all geniuses .
The Cold Fusion Ping List
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/coldfusion/index?tab=articles
http://www.fcnp.com/commentary/national/10419-the-peak-oil-crisis-cold-fusion-redux.html
Do you do anything on FR OTHER THAN pimp this crazy crap?
Do you do anything on FR OTHER THAN
***Sure, just look at my posting history.
What is your problem, anyways? If this is true, it is world changing and it would have warranted such attention.
Can I be a “seagull” too?
Don't want to miss out!
Rossi's scientist friend, Levi, says the ecat should run for at least 24 hours to rule out a chemical reaction.
Seriously Kevmo,
Give it a rest. We have another story now that is also about nothing, the Herman Cain sexual harassment nonstory.
There are no facts in evidence in the Herman Cain story either, just alot of speculation about what might be true and who might know this or that.
Muon catalyzed fusion is a cold fusion that's been accepted by science for over 50 years. The author isn't very good at research.
fixed.
If this ecat story is true, the world has changed.
If ANY of these latest articles are true, the world has not changed.
Obama campaign may return funds from MF Global’s Corzine
House Passes Freeze on Excessive Wireless Taxes
Obama campaign may return cash from MF Global’s Corzine
Sunrise commissioner blocks Muslim ceremony
French weekly firebombed after it portrays Mohammad (It’s a joke, Achmed. It’s called satire.)
Will the sycophantic media ever call Nancy Pelosi a hypocrite?
UK military steps up plans for Iran attack amid fresh nuclear fears (Diego Garcia B-2 permission)
Iowa radio host accuses Herman Cain of ‘inappropriate’ remarks (Politico continues hit pieces)
Cain accuses former adviser Curt Anderson (Former Cain Senate Campaign Adviser Denies Charge)
Feds Request Data On All Alabama Students
All New South Park: “1%”
I think I’ll give up on you early in this thread.
Not worth the keystrokes & pulled posts.
T4BTT
Can I be a “seagull” too?
Don’t want to miss out!
***Absolutely
T4BTT
I’m developing a theory that Rossi is leaving obvious clues that his device is bogus and that he’s incompetent. That way he’ll have a legal defense.
FWIW, I used to work in the power generation industry. It was common knowledge that we had a handful of scientists in a lab working on harnessing cold fusion. I do not doubt that there are a few still doing it.
>> “Cheap, pollution-free energy could, in theory, reset the clock on global warming.” <<
.
This statement kills the article for anyone with a reasonable level of understanding.
Believing in the tooth fairy has vastly more basis in science than global warming. How can a daydream believer be qualified to write on this?
I think it is interesting, scam or not. Just don’t read the post if it bothers you.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/backroom/2800058/posts?page=55#55
To: Moonman62
It appears that a relatively innocuous post responding to you was pulled.
This means I have nothing more to say to you about LENR. Bye.
55 posted on Sunday, October 30, 2011 4:41:07 PM by Kevmo (Caveat lurkor pro se ipso judicatis: Let the lurker decide for himself)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
The title alone “Peak oil crisis” was enough for me to recognize the idiocy.
Pick another thread friend. If you aren’t interested in the subject get on with your life.
Deliberate antagonistic behaviour should be banned from this board.
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