Posted on 07/10/2011 10:39:42 PM PDT by Kevmo
CBS 60 Minutes reports on cold fusion April 2009
The CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes reported on cold fusion on April 19, 2009. The video and an article describing it are here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/17/60minutes/main4952167.shtml
"COLD FUSION IS HOT AGAIN - Presented in 1989 as a revolutionary new source of energy, cold fusion was quickly dismissed as junk science. But today, the buzz among scientists is that these experiments produce a real physical effect that could lead to monumental breakthroughs in energy production. Scott Pelley reports. Denise Schrier Cetta is the producer."
A detailed description of the broadcast is here: http://newenergytimes.com/v2/news/2009/60MinutesTurnsUptheHeat.shtml
The reported featured the work of McKubre et al., and Dardik et al. Here are some notable papers by these authors:
McKubre, M.C.H., et al., Development of Advanced Concepts for Nuclear Processes in Deuterated Metals. 1994, EPRI. http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/McKubreMCHdevelopmen.pdf
McKubre, M.C.H., et al., Isothermal Flow Calorimetric Investigations of the D/Pd and H/Pd Systems. J. Electroanal. Chem., 1994. 368: p. 55. http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/McKubreMCHisothermala.pdf
Dardik, I., et al. Ultrasonically-excited electrolysis Experiments at Energetics Technologies. in ICCF-14 International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science. 2008. Washington, DC. http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/DardikIultrasonic.pdf
CBS asked Prof. Robert Duncan to do an independent evaluation of the literature and to visit researchers and experiments. Duncan has not performed cold fusion experiments himself and had the impression that the original claims were mistaken. He now says: "I found that the work done was carefully done, and that the excess heat, as I see it now, is quite real." He added: "If you ask me, is this going to have any impact on our energy policy, its impossible to say, because we don't fundamentally understand the process yet. But to say, because we don't fundamentally understand the process and that's why we're not going to study it, is like saying, 'I'm too sick to go to the doctor.'"
Most experts who have conducted independent evaluations of cold fusion have concluded the effect is real, notably Gerischer, who wrote: "In spite of my earlier conclusion, -- and that of the majority of scientists, -- that the phenomena reported by Fleischmann and Pons in 1989 depended either on measurement errors or were of chemical origin, there is now undoubtedly overwhelming indications that nuclear processes take place in the metal alloys." See: http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/GerischerHiscoldfusi.pdf
Richard Garwin asserted that there may be an error measuring input power, and the excess heat might be an artifact for this reason. This is ruled out for several reasons, most notably:
The excess heat has been measured when there is no input power, in heat after death and with gas loading. As McKubre pointed out in his response, "A very large number of people have been making these measurements and a measurement of current, voltage, temperature resistance is some of the simplest measurements that a physicist or a physical scientist will measure." Garwin himself, in his 1993 report on his visit to SRI wrote: "We have found no specific experimental artifact responsible for the finding of excess heat . . ." In other words, he does not know any specific reason to doubt the power measurements. Unless he can cite a specific reason his claim cannot be tested or falsified and therefore it is not a valid scientific assertion. Garwin's SRI report is here: http://www.newenergytimes.com/v2/reports/GarwinLewisReport/garwin.shtml
http://newenergytimes.com/v2/news/2009/RichardGarwinStillDisbeliever.shtml
Garwin also said: "I am living proof that there's doubt. Now, they can say that there, that excess heat is being produced. But they can't say there's no doubt. All they can say is they don't doubt. But I doubt." This is also not a valid scientific assertion.
Well, I hope that baby doesn’t get cranky tonight.
I’ve been strongly pro-nuclear for many years (see my webpage on nuclear power at http://RussP.us/nucpower.htm). When I discovered this Thorium technology a couple months ago, I was amazed. It sounds almost too good to be true. Check it out, and spread the word!
“...Palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium form a group of elements referred to as the platinum group metals (PGMs). These have similar chemical properties, but palladium has the lowest melting point and is the least dense of them.”
Per Wikipedia.
Asteroids are rich in PGMs. If cold fusion becomes common, we will need a steady supply, and that is off-planet.
Outer space, here we come!
Chocolate rations have been increased to 20 grams this week.
60 Minutes didn’t report about cold fusion, they reported about as yet unproven claims of a currently elusive phenomenon dubbed cold fusion, but admittedly that’s too long for a headline.
He tweaked the AdminMod over having a picture he posted on some thread getting pulled.
"Meddle not in the affairs of AdminMod, for you are crunchy and go well with ketchup."
Cheers!
They're even richer in nickel (they call'em "nickel-iron" asteroids for a reason).
Rossi's existing devices are V0.10 prototypes at the very leading edge of the learning curve. Be patient. The first fission reactors (Chicago pile) didn't produce much power either.
I often think wistfully what the world would be like had we pursued Kennedy's Space Initiative rather than LBJ's Great Society.
later reading
CBS, fake but accurate.
Kevmo, this is a comment about CBS, not you or cold fusion.
The E-Cat uses Nickel (Ni) and Hydrogen Gas - the waste product is Copper (Cu). No palladium involved - that was in the previous Cold-Fusion fiasco. That process was duplicated with about a 1% repeatablility rate. Thus, it was simply impractical. When it worked - it went boom. Most of the time, it didn't work at all.
Whereas, the E-Cat has had a near 100% repeatability, and has been running continuously for nearly 2 years.
Space will remain out of reach for practical uses until the space elevator is build.
< /SARC>
I was surprised not to see any mention of Rossi’s ecat...
I was surprised not to see any mention of Rossis ecat...
***This report was 2 years ago, before Rossi was on most people’s radar. I thought it had no chance at the time, since it was NiH and all the best results so far were using Palladium/Deuterium.
I posted this on another thread.
To: All; y’all; et al
The guys on the Thorium Energy website came up with a good candidate for the catalyst: Technetium (or just Thorium).
Grappling with Whether the E-CAT is a fraud
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2731436/posts
Tuesday, June 07, 2011 6:13:45 PM · by Kevmo · 99 replies
Energy from Thorium ^ | May-June 2011 | Various
http://energyfromthorium.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2783&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=105
Axil Post subject: Re: Cold Fusion againPosted: Mar 06, 2011 3:39 am
Joined: Aug 21, 2008 12:57 pm Posts: 1963 Going back to the assumption that the secret catalyst must be radioactive based of the reluctance to allow radiation analyzers to be used during the first demo of the Rossi reactor. And taking into account the interest Rossi had in waste to oil production using nickel catalysts, a new radioactive catalyst candidate has emerged.
Quote: Edmund Storms: Rossi hit upon this somewhat by accident. He was using a nickel catalyst to explore ways of making a fuel by combining hydrogen and carbon monoxide and apparently, observed quite by accident, that his [?????] was making extra energy. So then he explored it from that point of view and, apparently, over a year or two, amplified the effect.
Hes exploring the gas loading area of the field. This is also a region, a method used in the heavy water, or the heavy hydrogen, system. But in this case, it was light hydrogen, ordinary hydrogen and nickel and what happens is quite amazing.
You create the right conditions in the nickel, and he has a secret method for doing that, and all you do is add hydrogen to it and it makes huge amounts of energy based upon a nuclear reaction.
The Case for Technetium-99
Technetium-99 decays almost entirely by beta decay (.294 MeV is about 10% of the speed of light), emitting beta particles with consistent electron energies and no accompanying gamma rays.
Moreover, its long half-life means that this emission decreases very slowly with time. It can also be extracted to a high chemical and isotopic purity from radioactive waste. It is a world class beta emitter which has been considered for nanoscale nuclear battery applications. In other words, Technetium produces fast (heavy) electrons in great abundance.
Like rhenium and palladium, technetium can serve as a catalyst. For some reactions, for example the dehydrogenation of isopropyl alcohol or saturated fats, it is a far more effective catalyst than either rhenium or palladium and is the top absorber of hydrogen among all the metals.
Its melting point is very high at 2200C and it can take the high heat in Rossis reactor.
Reaction of technetium with hydrogen produces the negatively charged hydride [TcH9] ion.
You can see that Technetium can absorb a huge load of hydrogen.
On another note, rare earths have some of the lowest work factors around. They are in the 2.5 range give or take.
It has been found that the radiation from Technetium lowers there work factors substantially. That means that these rare earth elements radiate electrons like crazy; that is, there thermionic electron emissions are very large.
When a combination of the rare earth oxides: europium oxide, ytterbium oxide and lutetium oxide are used in combination with Technetium their already low work functions compound on themselves reducing there combined work functions even further thereby generating large thermionic electron emissions at low temperatures. This work function reduction is somehow produced as a result of the radiation from Technetium.
This conjecture supports both the production of both vast amounts of high speed electrons and the absorption of loads of hydrogen; two key factors that must be optimized for LENR to occur.
This Technetium and rare earth admixture is now my leading contender for the Rossi secret catalyzer. It is also consistent with what the Rossi patent states.
2 posted on Monday, July 11, 2011 9:33:40 PM by Kevmo (Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all. ~Ronald Reagan)
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