[mad_as_he$$]

Like I said some assumptions on are part are needed to understand Rossi’s claims. I expect that a significant part of the reaction does not come from the nickel changing to copper but from the poorly understood neutron release.(which seems crazy on the face). There is a chart of the process sequence, posted around FR, that seems to cover the entire reaction. Many classical physicists dispute that it is functional. I am not prepared to say that he cannot get 517 tons equivalent. I will say I am skeptical of that number - but condemning it at this point is futile. I want to see the 1MW test in October (no delays) and then we will know if this is real or a pipe dream. BTW the fact that reaction gets “unsafe” in units bigger than the 14kw one is a clue that the neutron emission may be something other than what we have thought it to be.

[Wonder Warthog]

"BTW the fact that reaction gets “unsafe” in units bigger than the 14kw one is a clue that the neutron emission may be something other than what we have thought it to be."

The "unsafety" aspect seems more to be from thermal runaway. I suspect that at larger sizes, control of the heat transfer in the crude units used is just plain inadequate. Unfortunately (as far as we now know) the only "control rod" for the reaction is temperature, and thus heat transfer. I think scaling up to larger individual modules will require some pretty sophisticated precise cooling.