I've spent my whole life waiting for laser fusion to produce the goods. I'm not excited.
I want a Mr. Fusion.
Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 01/27/2011 10:38:26 AM PST by The Comedian
A couple of weeks ago we reported that the Italian inventor Andrea Rossi has announced that he has a commercial ready cold fusion reactor that is safe and reliable, capable of producing 10 kW of heat; and is in process of going into production, with a 1 MW plant being built ganging 125 of these units together.
Rossi has allowed outside scientists to perform tests on the module and report on their findings. Papers on these tests have begun to emerge.
In a paper that came out Monday morning (Italy time), Prof. Giuseppe Levi of the University of Bologna describes two experiments. One was performed in December of 2010 and the other on January 14 of 2011, during the public demonstration and press conference. In both experiments Andrea Rossi's cold fusion reactor is tested to determine if more energy is output than input. The results are clear that in both tests much more energy was produced than was put into the system.
In the first test, Levi reported that Rossi's device actually self-sustained for approximately 15 minutes after all power was cut, until they had to stop the reactor by applying additional cooling water. When reading the document one may realize that the output energy for the second test is missing. However, this information has already been posted and was over 10KW.
In the second paper (ref, pp. 7-12) Dr. David Bianchini, also of the University of Bologna, describes his tests to determine if radioactivity is escaping the system for safety purposes, during the January 14 demonstration. He detects no radiation escaping the shielding of the system.
Another paper describing a test to determine what radiation is produced inside of the cell is posted here.
Then, in a paper that came out on January 26, Mauro Villa, also with Bologna University, describes his tests to determine if any gamma radiation is being produced inside of the reactor. Two holes were placed in the shielding to allow radiation to be measured. No gamma radiation significantly above background was detected. However, he does not discount the possibility of lower energy gamma rays being produced.
Classical physics predicts that some type of radiation must be produced by the system to heat the components of the reactor to heat the water. Villa had predicted that gamma radiation is the most likely culprit, but his measurements did not verify that premise. So either this is not a fusion reaction according to classical physics, or there is some kind of new physics taking place that is yet to be understood and characterized.
Some speculate that perhaps X-Rays are being emitted. The lead shielding in the apparatus is consistent with this presumption. This would be similar to the X-Rays produced by Black Light Power's system involving Hydrinos – a smaller, more energetic variation of the hydrogen atom. (Ref.)
Rossi claims that outside scientists have tested his system to determine if X Rays are produced, but has not yet received the results.
Since these new papers have been posted many new messages have been posted in the comment section of the Journal of Nuclear Physics blog run by Rossi. Some of his answers confirm what he has already said, and others give new information. For example, He is starting a 1 year research program with the University of Bologna to investigate the reactions inside of the reactor. Work on the 1MW plant is nearing completion and will open in a "matter of months." The wait is mostly due to "authorization" issues. The volume of the reactor is 1 liter. They expect their patent that covers their catalysts and special processes done to the nickel to be granted by the time the 1MW plant opens. When the patent is granted they will release full details on the catalysts, special processes done to the nickel, construction of the device, etc. They have ran their device in self-sustain mode for several hours at a time.
So where are we at this point?
It seems more people think this technology is legitimate. Of course the final proof of this will be when the 1MW plant opens.
Also, the news about his technology is spreading. Articles have appeared in EE Times, Zero Hedge, Popular Science, Discovery, TechEye, Fox News, Gizmodo, Motherboard, Mother Nature Network, and elsewhere. Most of these are highly skeptical and cite PhysOrg as their primary source, which cited our January 17 PESN coverage as its primary source.
We continue to chronicle the main developments at PESWiki.com.
Lawrence Rayburn has posted some comments in a forum, which we've compiled, in which he seems to think it wouldn't be hard to build one of these cold fusion reactors. He claims to have built a working Tesla Radiant Energy Collector some years ago, but he thinks this cold fusion reactor is much more simple and plausible for widespread implementation.
“Old School Science would say the final proof would be replicable results.”
125 working units (to get 1MW) sounds pretty much like replicable results to me.
I hope so. If they can do it they will make Bill Gates look like a pauper.
We would almost immediately be able to be self-sufficient on our fossil fuels - and the electrical/fuel cell car movement would explode.
It would take decades for us to complete the switch-over from gasoline powered cars/trucks/boats to electrical. We are pretty embedded in this.
But, where this will most likely be felt is in our utility bills. Heating and cooling bills should drop like a rock!! With more and readily available energy - technology should skyrocket. Imagine, your heating/cooling bill is ~$10-30/month to service your 5,000 sq ft home in Arizona.
I've spent my whole life waiting for laser fusion to produce the goods. I'm not excited.
I want a Mr. Fusion.
“...by key powerful ancient physicists”
yessss...named “Exon”, “Texaco-Mobile”...and their leader ...”US DOE”....
“Imagine, your heating/cooling bill is ~$10-30/month to service your 5,000 sq ft home in Arizona.”
the Feds are ALREADY looking for a regulatory or tax mechanism to put that difference in THEIR pocket....
The question is does it generate enough energy to realize the cost of manufacturing its fuel or is it like ethanol in that it take 10watts of electricity to generate 5watts of potential fuel for the thing. I know aluminum is very energy intensive to refine, nickel???
The greens would still argue about the tires size and it´s incredible waste of chemical made rubber polluting the environment...
It would indeed change the rules of the game.
As one commented upwards, it looks like God himself has had it, and decided to make an end to the actual state of things...
it looks like a broken leg...
The thing is, when some prices plummet, and some services are no longer needed at all, those to whom those dollars used to go will be adversely impacted. Some, severely so.
That is also why we will never “voluntarily” do away with the federal income tax system. The sheer quantity of accountants, lawyers, government employees etc. that make their living off that system is staggering. You don’t pull rug out from under so many people without their being consequences. Severe ones.
Consider, the cost of making the energy will drop - that does NOT mean the profit margin will drop. If the cost of making electricty is 6.5 cent/KWhr and you sell it with taxes and profit included for 8.5 cent/KWhr - you have a 2 cent/KWhr profit.
Now, if cost dives to 1 cent/KWhr - you add your taxes and profit in - and we arrive at 3 cent/KWhr. Uncle Sam get’s the same amount, the utilties get their same budgeted amount. This is still a drop in your household bill of almost 66%. And finally, because the cost is lower - you may use MORE energy than you did before - so everyone’s profits still go up.
No layoffs -we still need linemen. However, the demand for coal and hydroelectric will plummet.
>>Consider, the cost of making the energy will drop - that does NOT mean the profit margin will drop. If the cost of making electricty is 6.5 cent/KWhr and you sell it with taxes and profit included for 8.5 cent/KWhr - you have a 2 cent/KWhr profit.<<
But what if the customer buys their own Mr. Fusion and the utility gets no money whatsoever?
Having no clue as to the start-up cost - this may or may not be viable. There will be a huge number of companies and individuals who will pay a 'service fee' to have someone else worry about maintenance, refueling and emergencies. I don't see a whole lot of people going 'off the grid' in the future. The only people I do see buying their own "Mr. Fusion" are the folk who are moving out into the wilds, and simply have an issue of cost in getting themselves put 'on the grid'. I have some co-workers who bought land in Wyoming, and the cost of getting power brought to their property is $65,000. These folk are forced to consider solar and wind. This could be a viable alternative.
Here is the key: whether it costs more or less, one needs to factor in that the people making money off energy now may not be the ones making money off it in the future. It means those making money off it now will fight change.
This reminds me a little of what is happening to the record industry right now. It is imploding, no matter what they try.
bflr
This reminds me a little of what is happening to the record industry right now. It is imploding, no matter what they try.
I think this cold fusion thing would do to the energy industry what MP3 has done to the music industry. And the former is considerably larger and more intertwined into our economic culture.
No, NIF is the latest version of SHIVA, and it *does* work. But it’s not particularly scalable. HiPER takes NIF and cuts it way down, replacing the extreme compression with a much simpler, lower-energy compression level, level plus a heating pulse. In a way, HiPER is a simplified NIF.
As mentioned, there’s really just one unknown with HiPER, and that is how the heating pulse will function when delivered to such a super-compressed target (Shiva, Nova, and NIF solved the issues that cropped up with the compression pulse). We know a lot about heating pulses like HiPER will do when they’re applied normal matter, but not when applied to super-dense matter.
All right, which one of you wise guys organized a prayer circle dedicated to changing the laws of physics?
Seriously though, I have noticed that what were considered immutable laws of physics are changing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.