Back at the end of November PDGT offered news that a series of third party tests on Hyperion products were scheduled to be performed within the first months of 2012.  That test proceeding is being handled privately and was to take place after a certification of some kind.

The Defkalion Hyperion Multieactor Diagram

The new announcement is a major confidence builder as the firm is offering qualified engineers from institutions and industry a first look with their own instrumentation. Obviously at this time the offer isn’t to ship units out of their control, rather the offer is to provide the first look and the opportunity to confirm the claims and identify the applicability and estimate the savings and energy availability.  It is a shrewd move and there very likely will be takers.

The objectives at this early stage are simple.  Determine the excess heat of reactor discharge without a cooling apparatus to determine a total energy consumed to energy production ratio.  Also on the list is a radioactivity measurement and operational stability handled by the Hyperion control system.

The press release offers extensive details on the conditions PDGT hopes to hold through negotiations with test offers. In fact the conditions describe the firm’s resources and a kind of standard such that all tests will have similarity in protocol and the results can be relevant to others.  That’s an advantage to everyone at this stage.

Moreover, the firm is making clear they have minimum standards of test conduct.  At this stage LENR is a controversial technology. The base the level of doubt is the technology is not even credible.  The caution involved is not just protective of the firm’s proprietary technology, the caution also should firewall out the time and resource wasting detractors.

This stage is a very impressive boost for both PDGT and the LENR community.  While Mr. Rossi is at least greatly annoyed, and justifiably incensed, the PDGT effort may well boost his own efforts to a more accepted level faster.

The puff part is the Hyperion’s new very high discharge temperature, capable of exceeding 650º C.  That’s enough to drive steam turbines and getting close to dry steam.

At those discharge temperatures PDGT is suggesting the third party test can expect at least a 1:20 ratio of consumed energy to produced energy. Its also way past what might be installed in homes. PDGT seems to looking at heat production and more industrial applications.

After the press release is a comment section that includes some impressive persons.  Jed Rothwell who runs the respected LENR-CANR.org was there to straighten up some visitors’ questions.  By early this morning the comments were getting quite sophisticated and precise in their assessment for the PDGT test offer.  The comments are a worthwhile read on their own.

LENR has got legs under it now.  Things are sure to move faster and news should be much more important and worthy of attention to a much wider audience.

A Hat Tip to NextBigFuture for seeing the news first and getting the links up fast!

The customary view is the UL accepts products destined for sale in the final form, which is a fact.  However, the UL also offers governmental units assistance in establishing reasoned law, regulation and rules.  For manufacturers the UL also extends more than just final product tests, they work with manufacturers at the design stage to assure that a final product will in fact achieve an UL label.  It’s a highly likely prospect that the design stage is where the UL and Mr. Rossi have started the process.  A quick review of the UL policy suggests that the E-Cat is substantially interesting enough to begin the UL Process and that Low Energy Nuclear Reactions are a new field.

For the cheering section, The UL will have to have a working unit running to establish their parameters on the terms set by the UL.  At some point, if an application for certification is made, the certainty the E-Cat will offer an alternative power source is essentially – a sure thing.

The UL involvement follows news that National Instruments (NI) is working with Mr. Rossi in designing new control systems for the one-megawatt and home size 10 kilowatt (kw) E-Cat.  In the conversation Mr. Rossi offered that now great progress is being made and on his blog he’s indicated that they have been able to achieve stable steam production of 400ºC. This will be important later for the efficient production of electricity.

The NI participation offers a technically proficient and sophisticated set of tools, expertise and products that will improve the E-Cat and impact favorably on its price.  There are other hints in the conversation that suggest the operation of an E-Cat is going to be “Plug and Play”, so much so that a home unit is going to come very soon.

First is the E-Cat is being designed to self sustain itself after the first initial warm-up.  For an hour the E-Cat is thought to need about 2.8 kw, or about the power of 28 100 watt bulbs.  From initiation of self-power, the only requirement is going to be electricity for the electronics and control system.  The home E-Cat will produce only heat for now.

It’s going to be very cheap heat.  Mr. Rossi is suggesting he can sell the E-Cat for $400 to $500 using the best engineering possible of the production line, automation of all aspects of the factory, and the use of robotics. The goal is to make this technology so affordable that everyone will be able to purchase a system.

The next revelation is E-Cat units would be capable of being re-fueled by individuals, not by technicians – somewhat like changing the ink in a pen. After using a cartridge for 180 service days (counted up as the system is actively in use), the system will indicate it needs to be replaced.  An old cartridge would then be sent to Mr. Rossi’s Leonardo Corporation to be recycled as much of the remaining nickel could be salvaged, and it would only need to be re-processed. Previous information has made clear that opening a cartridge is not a good idea as nickel while safe in sizes like coins isn’t when nickel is reduced to the particle size within a cartridge.

To begin with cartridges are expected to cost somewhat more than $10 and over time come down to the $10 regular recycled cost. If a home were to need one unit for both water and space heating at $500 upfront and lasting 5 years and $13 each six months the monthly cost would be $8.34 and $2.17 or $10.51.

The next revelation is the hydrogen needed to feed the reaction is going be sourced from within the reactor.  The home E-Cat may utilize a material inside of the reactor core, which can release and absorb hydrogen.  While the production of hydrogen isn’t made clear, the reactor may be producing it as well as using it, or some means of scavenging is being used.  However its being done, very little in involved.  A new core will be loaded with about 10 grams and only picograms are needed for driving the reaction.

The enticing clue for the disbelieving set is the proprietary radio frequency generator that has emissions to interact with the reactions inside of the core.  Along with the catalysts this is information that will stay secret as long as possible.  What did slip is Mr. Rossi compared the use of the radio frequencies to martial arts. Rossi explained that the radio frequency generator allows the forces that would normally prevent the fusion process from taking place (Coulomb forces) to work for you, and not against you. Rossi offers that the full theory of how the system works will be revealed, as he put it, “soon.”

By all means have a look at the full video of the interview. Its does run over 1:50, but for those with cause to be interested, this is a very good use of a couple of hours.  There is also a transcript available too.

The Rossi interview follows a video from NASA that discusses the importance of proceeding with LENR research.  The over reaction by some of those reporting on the video release is making more of a note than the original news.  Or simply put, jumping to the conclusion the NASA video somehow supports the Rossi E-Cat is just false.  The gentleman at NASA, Dr. Joseph Zawodny does not mention Rossi name, just that the preponderance of research has become many reasons to get to work.

The NASA video does point out one important thing.  While the first to market will be forever a leader, the technology is just now taking off and where it will lead in the decades to come is today anybody’s guess.

Focus Fusion is just one.  The Robert Bussard theory of developing the Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) method being taken forward by EMC2 Fusion Development Corporation, if past half way on the latest scale test regime.  At the end of October 2011, the WB-8 device had generated over 500 high power plasma shots. EMC2 is conducting tests on Wiffle-Ball plasma scaling law on plasma heating and confinement.

The WB-8, rather affectionately called the Wiffle-Ball, builds on previous concept-demonstration benchtop versions of plasma wiffle balls.  The eighth generation covers research, analysis, development, and testing to validate the basic physics of the advanced gaseous electrostatic energy concept.  The question, “Does it Work?” seems to be answered as this generation’s stated purpose is to provide the U.S. Navy, the granting and funding agency, with data for potential applications of advanced gaseous electrostatic energy. The short-range goal is to demonstrate a fusion plasma confinement system for shore and shipboard applications.

One weakness now that Dr. Bussard has passed away is the personnel that are at the leading edge of the technology “escape” to other efforts.  The latest example is Dr. Richard Nebel who has been “lost” to Tibbar Technologies. Dr. Nebel’s experience and know-how is in great demand, but from the outside we find a bit of very encouraging news – a small experiment is being constructed at Tibbar Technologies using its Bismark Device to test concepts of the work in electrostatic confinement thermonuclear fusion.

The risk is in the continuity of skills. The team members and Dr. Nebel in particular have real hands on working experience in building a Wiffle Ball IEC device.  Sometime, in the coming year we should hear that the project completes, and that some, most likely vague expression of the results, will or won’t lead to another funding round (someday).

But we must all keep in mind what and where the research is, its about building a device that works that can be used to go to net output scale.  The confidence is at hand to think Dr. Bussard’s idea will go to net power.  Is the engineering ready to get one built? That is the question.

That is where Dr. Lerner and Lawrenceville Plasma Physics are seeking to get to with the Focus Fusion device.  The Bussard theory has eight generations and years of pretty much on and some off time getting to this point.  Keep in mind there is a British effort paralleling the Bussard research with their own innovations.

That makes Dr. Lerner’s theory and scaling effort all the more compelling.  At Lawrenceville there is a stream of news releases and constant attention to followers and devotees.  There you can follow along, almost in real time, about the progress.

It looks like the Lerner theory will make net power and the testing to date tracks that supporting the likelihood it will work.

In the simplest possible terms the Focus Fusion idea is to use nature’s tendency to swirl fluid in motion and those fluids when drawn faster and tighter to get hotter and concentrate the energy until there is enough pressure and heat that the a fuel introduction will make thermonuclear fusion events.  Get the fuel in there fast enough to the proportion of energy needed to make the system go and you’ll get net power.

Dr. Lerner’s fundamental problem is this has never been done before.  The design ideas while they seem optimal at the start must be tested and those tests will reveal the actual value and an avalanche of data that will help direct further design.  That cycling is underway.  The next matter are the materials used.  Again the optimal ideas will be tested and cycles will dump data and new designs will need built.  This all takes time and resources.

Then the reality has to be considered.  Lerner’s idea will create one of the universe’s hottest spots, albeit a very tiny one.  That environment is as much or more of a challenge as proving the theory.

The progress so far is stunning.

There is also the TriAlpha effort, a silent group, working at another vision of confinement we think is similar to IEC.  Plus the astonishing General Fusion idea that simply uses raw compression to set off the fusion events.

From here LENR or cold fusion, fuel cells and fusion offer 2012 the best hopes for the century’s leading energy and fuel future.  All three are at thresholds of entering a far wider audience than specialty media and bloggers.  We may well get a shot at ordering something truly revolutionary in powering our lives.

2012 is looking good, and there are lots of other technologies that may very well leap into this class of potential.

It’s already a Happy New Year!

The most interesting and controversial is LENR, the better description for cold fusion that is showing no less than three attempts at commercial marketing.  Due to the oversight of the estimable Al Fin finding a UK Wired magazine article built up with some tidbits, takes us even further into some expectations.  The most striking observation Wired’s David Hambling makes is revisiting the news of Mr. Rossi’s visit to Massachusetts on a look at production facility sites for producing the E-Cat.

Rossi visited the Massachusetts State House at the invitation of State Senator Bruce Tarr. He met government officials and scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Massachusetts and Northeastern University to discuss in general terms the prospects for setting up E-Cat manufacturing in the region.  The strike comes from history – MIT personnel were leading destructors of the eminent Fleischmann and Pons work.  A generation has passed, but the notice of such behavior and unprofessional conduct cannot be overlooked.

The State Senator’s interest has also come up in the Republican nomination chase with candidate Mitt Romney saying to the Washington Examiner,  “I do believe in basic science. I believe in participating in space. I believe in analysis of new sources of energy. I believe in laboratories, looking at ways to conduct electricity with – with cold fusion, if we can come up with it. It was the University of Utah that solved that. We somehow can’t figure out how to duplicate it.”  Whoever briefed Romney blew it, but the matter is on the presidential race’s table.

Across the pond it seems the Brits are taking Rossi seriously as well.  The website FreeEnergyTruth filed a Freedom of Information request that showed the Department Of Energy And Climate Change is following developments, and even met with Swedish physicist Sven Kullander, one of the few to study the E-Cat.  The Department is sitting tight, waiting for peer-reviewed publication of experimental results before committing themselves.

On the marketing front the E-Cat has a well-designed official website, ECAT.com where orders for a one-megawatt industrial unit can be started and registrations of interest without cost, in a home heating heater for delivery in 2012 to 2013.  The proposed heat source is a 10-kilowatt home unit that will be available for €4,000, and the makers want to see how great demand is at this stage. ECAT.com’s operators are taking every measure to avoid any suggestion of fraud: industrial customers will test their units before purchasing. Payments will be made through an escrow account with a full refund if the products do not perform as described.  That’s pretty confidence inspiring.

Back in August the first E-Cat production deal blew up with the Greek company Defkalion Green Technologies.  Defkalion is launching its own range of cold fusion power plants in rivalry to Rossi’s E-Cat.  The Greeks are highly motivated to keep going, with Rossi or without and have gone ahead with a cold fusion device of its own, which it insists has been developed independently and also that their Hyperion named model is more stable than Rossi’s E-Cat.

In what has to be a duplicitous position, a Defkalion spokesman allowed that a spectroscopic examination was carried out on an operating E-Cat while it was being tested – without Rossi’s knowledge.  However, to maintain “fair play”, Defkalion’s scientists say they developed their technology without using this information.  Its reasonable to expect that without a patent issued, there will come a day of a “lawyer’s tax” on units to offset the competitive pricing advantage.

There is still Randall Mill’s BlackLight Power to keep in mind.  BlackLight is very deep into the research using Dr. Mill’s hydrino theory.  So far they are proposing three systems for energy release, one an electrochemical method ala a fuel cell and two thermal designs.  The progress of the past year is unknown, but the fuel cell differs in that water is the fuel rather than being the effluent.  The thermal designs are thought to be quietly signing new customers, some of which are utility grade.  Here the controversy isn’t being allowed to get any coverage – at all.

2012 may just be the year that LENR or the old cold fusion moniker gets real legs.  It looks like it won’t be possible to fail to deliver units and surely one customer or another will want the world to know it’s the most green company in history.  Stay tuned . . .

For most of us the idea that a new gizmo doesn’t just run is an anomalous thought.  But builders of the hardware of new ideas are usually faced with a series of mountainous climbs to get from an idea to a theory to a workable experiment to a lab model to a prototype and on to something built that others can buy.  It’s not like climbing a mountain – it’s more like climbing all the mountains in a range in a row.

Lerner and Blake Inspect an O-ring for FF-1. Click image for a larger view.

The dense plasma focus devices preceding FF-1 had a reputation for large shot-to-shot variability; a fusion generator (as well as most other applications) requires repeatable functioning.

For a commercial, or even for a widely acceptable test result the Focus Fusion device has to run demonstrating the level of repeatable firing needed for a fusion power generator.  Focus Fusion-1 fired five shots in a row November 2nd under the same conditions with fusion yield varying by only plus or minus 2.6% from an average of 0.9×1011 neutrons.

This is progress.  Back in May Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP) reported the research team had succeeded in stabilizing FF-1’s output to within a range of plus or minus 15%.  The latest, tighter stability of function represents a six-fold improvement over the May results and achieves approximately the range of reliability that would be required in a generator pulsing many times per second.

The report available as a downloadable pdf file discusses the improvement from more attention to the variances in the device’s energy emitting parts called electrodes.  The team made modifications to the central o-ring and insulating Mylar sheets to eliminate a small tilt detected in the alignment of the electrodes. The alignment of the electrodes is critical in producing a symmetric current sheath, which in turn is needed to get the highest compression of the plasmoid where the fusion reactions occur.

There is only a 15-mil (thousandths of an inch) clearance between the insulator and the cathode, or outer electrode, so this distance must be kept constant to within one mil around the whole circumference of the insulator.  While previous efforts have accurately centered the insulator at its base, any slight tilt in the large steel plate holding the anode can create a misalignment when the insulator passes close to the cathode.

The team found there was a small error in the dimensions of a rubber o-ring that surrounds the anode and provides a vacuum seal to prevent air from entering the vacuum chamber. Because the ring was too thick, it did not compress enough under the weight of the upper steel plate (which is attached to the anode) to rest securely on the Mylar plastic insulating layers and the lower steel plate (which is attached to the cathode). Instead, the o-ring carried the main weight and allowed the steel to tilt slightly. A reduction in the o-ring thickness as well as adding more lead weights to increase the compression will cure this problem.

With this matter out of the way and improvements to protect the inner assembly to electrical breakdown at future 120kV energy levels the team expects improved symmetry and fusion yield.

There is also an axial magnetic field coil that acts on the plasma along the length of the device that imposes a small field down the middle.  The field isn’t strong at 2 gauss, about 6 times the field on the earth’s surface.  But it spins the plasma and gets amplified when moving down the electrodes – much like a speeding bullet.  The record run of 5 in a row ended when the team set the field coil to double power at 4 gauss.

LPP also has added an IT person contracted to speed things up as well.  When a shot is made it was taking several minutes to dump the data off the six monitoring oscilloscopes.  Now data comes out in under a minute.  Next up is better data processing.

Dr. Lerner has what one sees as the opposite to the giant uber expensive ITER project.  FPP confines in the tiniest high-energy environment that man’s imagination has come up with.  It also seems to be stepping up to the goal – one laborious step by step.

While the LPP and the  FF-1 isn’t fraught with lots of controversy on the outside, the mountains are getting climbed one by one and the theory is fitting the test results.  It’s till a long ay to go.  Building the first fusion device that might run constantly is a tall order over many tall engineering problems.

It’s getting done – so congratulations are in order and sent.

Out of Cleantech via Al Fin Energy comes a hint of a nuclear fusion company more fantastic than the Rossi E-Cat.  While the E-Cat is already looking at manufacturing facilities, the newest drama comes from Australia.

Authors of a fresh Kachan report on new, safer, cleaner nuclear technology interviewed dozens of scientists at nuclear research outfits.  Almost all fusion organizations are either pursuing big, capital-intensive tokamaks or other smaller more innovative reactors. One interviewee in a face-to-face conversation with the Kachan folks in a location abroad, told of a small company he’s involved with that he claims has built a working 1MW fusion reactor the size of a rice cooker.

Now if that is a reality, and comes to fruition, organizations like the international €15 billion ($20.4 billion) ITER project, the multi-billion dollar U.S. National Ignition Facility, and smaller fusion companies like General Fusion, Helion Energy, Tri Alpha Energy, EMC2 and most everyone else even smaller like Rossi and BlackLight are in a for gut check.

The as yet unnamed company is now apparently in the process of building a 10MW version that it plans to trial in 2012. Just maybe the firm’s technology will represent a new energy production paradigm.

The report on this company’s fusion reaction says it’s fueled by deuterium and tritium at not nearly as high temperature as other efforts. Specifically, the reaction is said not to require the high temperature, high pressure or accelerated particles of others’ approaches. “The key is not how many neutron hits you generate, but how you sustain them, how well you can control them.” For a 40-watt power input, the reactor is said to be able to generate a megawatt,” is the quote.

Deuterium Tritium Nuclear Fusion. Click image for the largest view.

The technology’s inventor has apparently tinkered with his design for 40 years, and self-funded the company’s early stages, reinvesting income from earlier lucrative inventions. Now, strategic investors are said to include family money, such as a Shanghai real estate baron and decedents of American industrialist John Pitcairn, Jr.  Whew.  Here come the scam wonderers.

The inventor has been at the development since the 90s, sworn employees and investors not to let on how successful the research has been, and is said to have retained the former head of Israel’s counter terrorism unit as its chief of security.

The company is said to have already fielded a buyout attempt by General Electric. The inventor apparently didn’t want the invention owned by just one corporation, characterizing it as an invention for mankind, apparently.

The company is also said to be secretly working with the Australian Air Force and Navy, and the U.S. Department of Defense, and aims to trial a 10MW version of its reactor in 2012 with an Australian utility.

So where does the credibility hang in all this?

Kachan’s just released new Emerging Nuclear Innovations report running 64 pages summarizes 6 months of looking carefully at the nuclear power industry for companies best placed to usurp big, conventional fission of the type that powers the 432 non-military nuclear reactors that exist worldwide today.

The report also looks at improvements in conventional light water reactors, including boiling water reactors and pressurized water reactors, use of thorium as a fuel in molten salt and solid fuel reactors, molten salt reactors, fast neutron reactors, pebble bed reactors and modular reactors.

Mark Halper is the author of the Kachan report referred to above, which is offered for $1,295 to single users.

Dallas Kachan is the author of the Cleantech story linked above.  Kachan is now managing partner of Kachan & Co., a clean technology research and advisory firm that does business worldwide from San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver. Kachan & company staff has been covering, publishing about and helping push along clean technology since 2006.

So – we’re relying on just one person interviewing – just one person.  This is pretty thin.  In this case, Kachan says he trusts the source.  But the interesting thing is the fuels, deuterium and tritium reacting together forming helium – without high pressure and/or temperatures.  From the progress on and the gaining respectability of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (cold fusion) the idea that someone has worked up a device isn’t so wild as just a few years ago.

On the other hand, fusing deuterium and tritium is going to throw off a neutron, there would have to be a form of energy such as heat, and the requisite helium product.  The helium shouldn’t pose any problem, the energy is the goal, but that neutron will need some shielding and the energy will need a harvest and conversion step to electricity most likely.

It seems plausible, even possible with a dose of optimism.  Probable as a description will have to wait though.  Yet the potential of the probable begs another question.  Is someone out there working to somehow catalyze the Boron gas to helium reaction with the grand direct electrons to the grid scenario?

Its looking like the 2010-decade is going to be very interesting and quite exciting.

Mr. Wang has been in correspondence with Mr. Ahern for years and they have shared information – a clue as to why Wang’s site, NextBigFuture has always been a leading information source for the field.

Ahern received his PhD in material science from MIT, holds 26 patents and was a senior scientist for 17 years in research and development at USAF Rome Lab at Hanscom Air Force Base.  Its being said Ahern has discovered the LENR phenomenon is occurring on the nanoscale level and involves a formerly misunderstood and rarely explored attribute of nano-magnetism.

The briefest explanation explains energy localization at the nano-scale circumvents the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Nature evolved to take advantage of these energy exchange mechanisms available only at this size scale (which is why ordered structures can be created from chaos, such as after the big bang.) This phenomenon was identified in 1996 as “Oscillons in relation to Chaos Theory”, but has never been clearly understood until now.

Ahern takes this further saying, “In 1995 we made a major and fundamental discovery regarding nano-material properties. This is almost completely unknown to most technologists. All materials processed within certain tolerances experience very different vibrational modes than all other aggregations of matter. IT PROVIDES A CONCISE EXPLANATION FOR THE BIOENERGETICS OBSERVED IN ALL ASPECTS OF NATURE.”  (Emphasis provided by Ahern)

There is some practical application at hand now.  Ahern explained this to Akito Takahashi who is working to replicate the LENR experiments of Yashiaki Arata of early 2009 and Takahashi succeeded immediately. Ahern has also been funded for 2.5 years to replicate Arata’s work too, and then push on towards the work of Piantelli, the source many believe makes the products of Rossi and Defkalion possible. Ahern has also been guiding George Miley’s group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on this nanotechnology, and the group seems to be enjoying a great deal of success reported for the month of October.

A very bold statement is suggesting the phenomenon may account for and explains a persistent mystery regarding the unification of physics.

Ahern suggests and offers, “In the last 8 weeks I have been astounded by a superior nanotechnology that will capture the imagination of even the greatest foes of LENR. I believe all of LENR is just a new and unanticipated form of nanomagnetism.”

If Ahern has in fact gotten to the bottom of the physics question a major turning point has been reached.  LENR may well be a path to energize the future.

The main source of information for now is the Citi5 site where the press release about the discussions to come is posted and the e-cat site.  We’ll be watching those pages daily now.

LENR may just become a popular description for the power of the future while cold fusion is laid to rest.  There is a very long way to go – and if Ahern does have the physics worked out, experimentally testable, and understandable, a rush would be set off on the front edge of innovation that could go on for years.

Rossi and Defkalion may have products out in the coming year, but those are discoveries, as best as we can tell, from sheer serendipity.  A dedicated engineering design based on understood physics with tested efficiency attributes, properly scaled to maximize output and matched to an application would be a vastly more sophisticated and likely a mass producible item at low cost.

2012 is looking like a very interesting year, indeed.

The U.S. Navy funding is directed to conducting tests on “Wiffle-Ball” plasma scaling law on plasma heating and confinement by EMC2.

The firm has burned $3,216,826 of an authorized $7,855,504 and has surpassed 50% completion of the work.  As of September 30, 2011, the WB-8 device has generated over 500 high power plasma shots.

EMC2 is using the latest design, the WB-8, the next IEC or Polywell prototype in the series from Dr. Bussards’s initial device. The newest device has an eightfold increase in magnetic field strength compared to prior WB series devices, with the expectation of higher performance.

Of particular importance within the Navy contract is the option for an additional $4.46M for “…based on the results of WB8 testing, and the availability of government funds the contractor shall develop a WB machine (WB8.1) which incorporates the knowledge and improvements gained in WB8. It is expected that higher ion drive capabilities will be added, and that a “PB11” reaction will be demonstrated”

So far as we know, the group is led by Richard Nebel and Jaeyoung Park.  The latest report has Mr. Park leading the group.

The only indication of progress is the continuation of the experimentation and study.  That it’s not called off and everyone gone is a positive indicator.

What is known is that the experimentation facility is a fully outfitted to measure the confinement and the details needed to design the next step in the scaling of the machine to match the theory.

The raw truth is Dr. Bussard had passed away and the intellectual depth has to be recovered by a new set of scientists.  Much of what Dr. Bussard had offered as intuition is being reported as on target with a great deal more being learned.

The IEC idea is based on an evolving theory going back to the Farnsworth-Hirsch fusor. It seems that the current effort is being made to prove or disprove this theory at the point the WB8 can achieve.

Dr. Bussard asserted that using better equipment primarily in the magnets that form the chamber the only significant energy loss channel is through electron losses proportional to the surface area. He also stated that the density would scale with the square of the field (constant beta conditions), and the maximum attainable magnetic field would scale with the radius (technological constraints).

Now here is the bait – Under those conditions, the fusion power produced would scale with the seventh power of the radius, and the energy gain would scale with the fifth power.

Dr. Bussard did not publicly document the physical reasoning underlying this estimate, but if its proven to be true, it would enable a model only ten times larger than the one Dr. Bussard used at his passing away to be useful as a fusion power plant.  Those dimensions would be less than seven feet on the sides.

The second morsel is Dr. Bussard proposed fueling the reactor with boron-11 and proton fuel. However, there is some controversy about the viability of “p-11B” reactors. Bussard’s calculations indicate that the bremsstrahlung losses would be as little as one twelfth of the fusion power production. So far, while some think the proton and boron fuel approach will never work, Bussard and Dr. Lerner’s Focus Fusion will drive to the boron solution.

That’s because the fuels after the fusion leave no radioactive residue or in theory, make no dangerous radioactivity or radiowave emissions.  Fuel experiments await a functioning fusion device with adequate power.

The second part of the fuel story is the fusion of boron and the proton result in a cascade of electrons that theory suggests could simply be captured and fed to the power supply.  The power the electrons would deliver is another engineering feat to be explored.

Dr. Bussard offered a magnificent and elegant solution to generating power and other interesting uses.  The EMC2 team and the U.S. Navy are quietly going about the step-by-step process of taking Dr. Bussard’s theoretical work to reality while recovering the intelligence lost at his passing.

If EMC2 and the Navy continue on with the next phase, that would be a signal to other researchers in the field that there really is something here to go after.

So, how does one decide if the device is for real or not?  Go to Bologna with money in hand and buy one.  If you need heat production cheap that’s a palatable answer.  Chances are you will get what you paid for.

This does not stop the controversy.  The story now is the controversy itself.  Some, one Stephen Krivits who is now out in front, are making claims that seem every bit as misleading as a fraudster’s.  That sort of personal choice is using an earned station to attract more attention.  There should be a calculated risk in Krivits’ position – that a proof of E-Cat failure would bring some appreciation, or that a success would bring derision.  Without personal acquaintance with Krivits one cannot know the motivation.  A certainty is Krivits opinion isn’t better informed than anyone else, thus his opinion is worthless.

Al Fin, Bless ‘em, said, “It is fascinating that so many people want to put themselves on record on either one side or the other, when the obvious rational thing for most people — most outsiders — to do is to wait for more information. Unless you have money or reputation on the line here, there is no need to declare a strong opinion one way or the other — if you have no inside knowledge.”

The closely watching reporters are offering news that Mr. Rossi has sold more units.  The buyer’s names are also being kept quiet.  Whether or not the sales have consummated is of little consequence, what matters are the E-Cats get installed, run and after a few months the customers are happy.  Obviously customers are not looking for public relations expenses dealing with hounding questioners, they seek low cost heat.  There will be plenty of time later to bask in leadership to a new energy economy.  When the credibility threshold is mounted, a company will want to be there with an E-Cat system running.

There is also the prospect that some firms will buy an E-Cat both for the leadership opportunity as well as the energy savings.  That sets up the prospect that the definitive proof won’t come from Rossi or a proponent – we may hear of a firm whose E-Cat experience meets or exceeds that original specification.  Perhaps that will accompany a new lower priced better product.

That kind of scenario isn’t going to make world headlines.  It will sell lots of E-Cats, which is the whole point.  Customers will be a step closer to more cost competitive goods, and the competition will have to adapt.

All this simply puts facility managers, planners and designers on notice.  What those folks need to get done is to get on the list at Rossi’s firm and start the process of getting past the defensive wall there to be on the inside for the due diligence needed for assessing the risks and costs for buying an E-Cat for a plant.   Heaven forbid a competitor getting one first, especially if the process heat an E-Cat makes is a major cost in production expense.

There is little prospect that there will be a major world headline one day that says “The Rossi E-Cat Works!”

But there is getting to be very high probabilities that one day soon we’ll be able to buy stuff made with E-Cats providing the manufacturing energy.

The greatest interest is the one-megawatt E-Cat specifications.  That would do more than anything to push the progress along. We’ll need to know a lot more than making one megawatt, what the temps are, the state of the heat, the rates, required supplies, and all the other bits that make an informed decision.

That’s what to look for.  And your humble writer is very interested in seeing them.

The Patterson heater was a technology documented but not commercialized.  As a functioning device that was replicated some work was done to provide the underlying physics theory.  Dr. Miley was involved in that work.

The work Miley was involved in developed a unique SIMS-NAA analysis technique for studies of isotopes in thin films after electrolysis in a packed cell bed.  The idea being for the electrolysis to help narrow up and isolate the metals.  Then the materials can be identified and quantified.

Miley, all the talk to the side, is simply offering from his knowledge of the Rossi E-Cat that the analysis work be applied to the Rossi E-Cat.  That would clearly identify the difference between the material going in before use and the condition or changes undergone during a reaction period.  It would be a sound proof that the E-Cat was producing a fusion event and offering excess energy.

Miley Slide Connection to Rossi. Click image for the largest view.

The Patterson work had progressed far enough to show that the materials or fuel was in fact demonstrated to have changed in element content and in turn allowed enough insight for a theory to form.

The theory was published by Yeong E. Kim, “Theory of Bose-Einstein Condensation Mechanism for Deuteron-induced Nuclear Reaction in Micro/Nano-Scale Metal Grains and Particles,” Naturwissenschaften, 96(7):803-11 (2009). Pdf file download.

Dr. Miley offers Rossi and the rest of us an idea of what could be going on inside the E-Cat Reactor.  Some electrolysis could be taking place freeing up elemental particles for the transmutation needed for the fusion to be taking place. The SIMS-NAA analysis technique Miley offers could confirm that and show the world Rossi has something real.

Using the analysis should also offer more insight on what is happening inside a Rossi E-Cat while operating.  That’s the sort of information that would allow Rossi and others to grasp the operation inside the reactor and optimize and modify it to suit a wider set of needs.

Now on the other hand – Miley and all the good intentions may fail to apply and the Rossi E-Cat continue to offer excess heat.  Miley is not suggesting he has a proven theory that applies, only that similar work has been shown to function per a recognized theory and the experience is at hand to make use of the known route.

This post may disappoint many as the demand is for, “It Works!” or “No, It Doesn’t Work!” neither of which serves anyone with useful information, a definitive answer.  Mr. Rossi and his E-Cat are real phenomena, whether or not it can revolutionize the production of useful energy is a road yet to be traveled.

It is looking like we’re making a trip down that road as we write and read about Rossi and his saga.  So far its just bets on the ‘information’, no hard data is out yet, or proof positive example that the E-Cat is the revolution many are hoping for.

At this date it would be hard to find smart money saying Rossi and his E-Cat are simply nothing.  It’s something – but what?  Lets hope Rossi gets with Miley and some good data gets into use.