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Power for start-up (resistive coils that provided heat to the reaction chambers) was provided by the large and loud genset (was making all the noise) you see that is nearly as large as the small shipping container in which the 1 MW E-Cat plant was arranged. Once the reaction chambers got up to temperature, they were maintained by the heat produced by the reaction. I'm not sure why they kept the generator running after that, but I would guess it was for back-up or safety. I'm sure the engineers testing the system made sure what the power levels were at all times.

Doesn't anyone see this a at least slightly suspicious?

According to Wikipedia a genset is an engine-generator, a machine used to generate electricity. And Rossi had one of these that was nearly as big as his unit running during the whole test. And this when he is in self-sustained mode.

Electricity was needed to run the pumps. It is explained in the report, for anyone who takes the time to link and read it.

Link is above.

Note that from the report, 66 kwh of energy was consumed from the time the e-cat was turned on at 1230 and when it was turned off at 1800. During the same time, the e-cat generated 2,635 kwh of energy.

Unless you are one of those who contend that 66 kwh of electrical energy is all you need to generate 2635 kwh of heat energy, you would have to accept that something other than fraud is going on here.

Doesn’t anyone see this a at least slightly suspicious?

***Sure. But wouldn’t the customer have to be incredibly stupid to sign off on Rossi’s device? If you were the customer, wouldn’t you focus on that?

Like any thermal reactor (be it a boiler or a nuclear reactor core), the heat has to be removed continually or the thing melts down or explodes.

And, of course, the whole point of the system is to take that circulating medium, make steam with it if it isn't already steam itself, and make it do work in a turbine to drive an electrical alternator of whatever scale is economical.

So at a minimum, they needed to circulate the cooling medium (water here, I presume) through the reactor, and that is done with electrically driven pumps. We can assume that these pumps were driven by the genset. In a practical system, power for the auxiliary systems like these would be on the negative side of the balance sheet for the facility's net power generation.

Now, why wouldn't the reactor be able to generate that power itself? First of all, this is a laboratory demonstration. Rossi, as far as I can tell, is content at this point merely to demonstrate the production of ~1MW of thermal energy.

Everyone is assuming that that 1MW thermal is going to be able to create a significant fraction of that amount in electrical power.

However, that depends on the temperature of the fluid medium that's getting its heat energy from the nuclear reaction. It has to be at least enough to boil water, anmd preferably much above its boiling point at atmospheric pressure. I'd say that 200 C would be an absolute minimum.

Perhaps someone here knows the exit temperature of the water in these demonstrations. It could be a significant limiting factor if the reactor can't be made to tolerate temperatures and pressures that will result in reasonable efficiency in the turbines that it will have to drive.

Like any thermal reactor (be it a boiler or a nuclear reactor core), the heat has to be removed continually or the thing melts down or explodes.

And the whole point of the system is to take that circulating medium, make steam with it if it isn't already steam itself, and make it do work in a turbine to drive an electrical alternator of whatever scale is economical.

So at a minimum, they needed to circulate the cooling medium (water here, I presume) through the reactor, and that is done with electrically driven pumps. We can assume that these pumps were driven by the genset. In a practical system, power for the auxiliary systems like these would be on the negative side of the balance sheet for the facility's net power generation.

Now, why wouldn't the reactor be able to generate that power itself? Well, this is a laboratory demonstration. Rossi, as far as I can tell, is content at this point merely to demonstrate the production of ~1MW of thermal energy.

Everyone is assuming that that 1MW thermal is going to be able to create a significant fraction of that amount in electrical power.

However, that depends on the temperature of the fluid medium that's getting its heat energy from the nuclear reaction. It has to be at least enough to boil water, and preferably much above its boiling point at atmospheric pressure. I'd say that 200 C would be an absolute minimum.

Perhaps someone here knows the exit temperature of the water in these demonstrations. It will be a fatal shorcoming if the reactor can't be made to tolerate temperatures and pressures that will result in reasonable efficiency in the turbines that it will have to drive.

One caveat on all that I have said above.

My comments presume that the main purpose of the E-Cat system is to generate electrical power, which in a sense is the highest form of usage for heat energy, and requires the highest temperatures.

For other purposes such as space heating, the temperatures don't even have to be close to the boiling point of water.

Doesn't anyone see this a at least slightly suspicious?

I'll vote for 'it reeks'.