About 20 some private initiatives to create nuclear fusion, LENR, and fission projects. Bill Gates is betting on fusion. — Posty McPostface

Fusion is a fiendishly difficult technical problem. When I attended a science summer school at Sydney Uni in 1978, everybody was talking about tokamaks and nuclear fusion as the holy grail of energy, and it seemed just around the corner.

Forty years later we are not significantly closer. It's still research labs playing around with tokamaks and hoping to one day generate enough power to replace the power needed to run the thing.

One day we'll crack the problem of scaled up fusion reactors and that'll be fantastic, but it won't be for a very long time. If fusion is the only hope against global warming then it'll be too late and we're all doomed.

Have you heard of LENR (Low Energy Nuclear Reactions)? It's like cold fusion with a twist. I'm betting hard on LENR and think it will provide the energy required to provide for us. It sounds like fantasy; but, I sincerely think it is real.

As for fusion, I think there's enough geothermal energy to sustain our needs too. Just that there seems to be no interest in geothermal. The LCOE is the lowest for geothermal. See:




Elon Musk is betting heavily on solar, and I think it's the right solution if the intermittent problem can be solved with some energy storage system.

I also think fission is undervalued and overly regulated. I hope thorium reactors or breeder reactors can be devised and implemented.

"Nuclear fusion is always 30 years away," as they say. This indeed has been the case for the last half-century if not more.

LENR is just a rebranding of cold fusion. It is largely the province of cooks and scammers.

LENR is just a rebranding of cold fusion. It is largely the province of cooks and scammers. — SophistiCat

You should look into it more. Seems you have a provincial view on the subject.

I personally support research into fusion energy. We just need to be really, really careful. — SnowyChainsaw

A fusion reaction "out of control" just dies down. It's much safer than fission in operation. Life time of fusion reaction waste is 50 to 100 years - a fraction from fission waste - and the resource materials aren't radioactive to begin with as opposed to uranium. Waste is also produced in much smaller amounts than for fission and tritium irradiates beta waves instead of gamma (and therefore is less harmful).

You should look into it more. Seems you have a provincial view on the subject. — Posty McPostface

Look where? Rossi's E-cat? :rofl:

:nerd: Quiz time about the fascinating subject of matter and energy!

1. What is the fourth state of matter? (along with solids, liquids, and gasses)
2. What is the state of matter that most of the known universe exists in?
3. What (debatably) is a potential transitional state between matter and energy?

Let's hope that there's enough petroleum left to synthesise the required petrochemicals to meet the budding renewable demands of the apocalypse.

The assertion that other countries besides the USA are adhering to the Paris climate agreement is false. Not a single country has met its obligations under that agreement. I think Germany is something like 24% off missing its goals, and that means that Germany has walked away from the agreement. Furthermore, the agreement itself was insufficient. The agreement called for countries to exceed the safe level of carbon emissions with the "understanding" that before the world goes to crap as a result, the countries would later adopt programs to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Like this is going to happen any time soon? We are already in a very dangerous situation with existing carbon levels, and the amount of carbon in the atmosphere is increasing, not decreasing.

Apparently nobody here has read or heard about the latest report at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed- which gives us about twelve years to become vigorously active to reverse the response to the total disaster of warming which will destroy human civilization and much of life on the planet, There will be no trees to return to and fusion power is still a fantasy. Human governments are doing nothing near enough to counter the disaster and there is small likelihood that response will be effective in time. It seems humans are quite bright but not bright enough to survive. Perhaps. after a million years or so, evolution will give dinosaurs another chance.

Look where? Rossi's E-cat? :rofl: — Benkei

There is a weight of evidence supporting what Rossi has been doing. I don't know if you care to explore what evidence is available in regards to the topic. The evidence is available through websites like http://brillouinenergy.com/...

I won't play the role of I know more than you, as I'm quite uneducated on the topic.

Check LPP Fusion. They are the only guys operating without LENR reactions that I hope can make a product possible. Dense plasma focus is what they are trying to create.

There isn't evidence. His patent is rejected because it's contrary to the laws of physics. He's given a lot of demonstrations but nothing peer reviewed in 7 years despite repeated requests by skeptical scientists. We also know that if you're fusing two protons, there will be gamma radiation (and lots of it). The E-Cat doesn't have the necessary shielding so he should be dead from radiation poisoning. Rossi claimed he was making copper out of nickel - in nature, only neutron stars are capable of doing so, which are the densest stars possible. Forcing a single proton on another proton takes a lot less energy than forcing one proton on a cluster of protons. You need to breach the Coulomb barrier so that the strong interaction force binds them together. Cold fusion is nonsense because of this.

LENR is possibly more serious provided it isn't cold fusion in disguise, which often happens. Lower temperatures (and therefore lower energy) is a possibility but not at or near room temperature. Just much lower than that of plasma, which would be an improvement for sure.

There isn't evidence. — Benkei

Indeed. And there are a few more red flags besides those that you mention. There always is an external power supply to Rossi's devices. Rossi never allows the supplied power to be monitored. This is a bit like a levitating magician who would never allows you to walk between him and the curtain. Also, Rossi never allows 'independent' investigators to handle the products of the alleged fusion reaction. But when the produced copper is analysed, it has isotope ratios that exactly matches the ratios for natural copper. This is rather like the Filipino psychic surgeons who extract cancerous tumors from people's abdomens with their bare hands and, when those 'tumors' are being tested, they are shown to have chicken DNA, or pig DNA, rather than human DNA.

Rossi has a customer for 40MW of his product. Let's wait and see if he can deliver on his promise.

Rossi has a customer for 40MW of his product. Let's wait and see if he can deliver on his promise. — Posty McPostface

He only has one single customer for his latest scam? Trump University at least managed to defraud 5,000 poor souls. What are the chances, anyway, that sustainable nuclear fusion would be achieved by a lifelong scam artist who doesn't have a degree in any scientific field whatsoever? Rossi graduated in philosophy. His first business venture consisted in buying toxic waste for safe disposal and conversion into usable fuel. He was merely stockpiling it and illegally dumping it into the environment. He then invented a magical device to convert waste heat into usable electric power (the laws of thermodynamics be damned). His devices were independently tested to only deliver 0.1% of the advertised power. Nuclear fusion just is his latest scam.

do your research. What happened to all those buyers of his 1 MW systems in 2011? Oh yeah, never happened. He's a scammer, plain and simple. As stated, the amount of gamma radiation should've killed him.

What are the chances, anyway, that sustainable nuclear fusion would be achieve by a lifelong scam artist who doesn't have a degree in any scientific field whatsoever? — Pierre-Normand

That's a straw man and you know it...

He then invented a magical device to convert waste heat into usable electric power (the laws of thermodynamics be damned). His devices were independently tested to only delivered 0.1% of the advertised power. Nuclear fusion just is his latest scam. — Pierre-Normand

Not true. I've been following the advent of LENR for 4 years now, and more and more people are reporting excess heat and commence viable product that can be derived from this technology. Some people have been following this technology since Pons and Fleischmann first released their product to the scientific community that we're unable to reproduce their results.

As stated, the amount of gamma radiation should've killed him. — Benkei

LENR doesn't necessarily product radiation in some circumstances. Gamma radiation has been reported by some people in different configurations of their LENR devices.

I don't think this is a rebuttal of Rossi... This simply takes a piece of evidence and generalizes for more than one individual, which is overgeneralizing.

There's a forum dedicated to LENR where different individuals report success in making a configuration of hydrogen-nickel mixtures into devices that either emit radiation or produce excess heat.

See: https://www.lenr-forum.com/

Not true. I've been following the advent of LENR for 4 years now — Posty McPostface

What is not true? Rossi's involvement with 'LENR' is his latest scam. But I was talking about Rossi's previous scam, marketed by his firm Leonardo Technologies, Inc., when he falsely claimed to have achieved 20% efficiency with thermoelectric generators. But the devices were actually generating 1 watt rather than the 1 kW he had claimed. (So, that was back when he was trying to circumvent the laws of thermodynamics rather than the principles of nuclear physics).

What is not true? Rossi's involvement with LENR is his latest scam. But I was talking about Rossi's previous scam, marketed by his firm Leonardo Technologies, Inc., when he falsely claimed to have achieved 20% efficiency with thermoelectric generators. But the devices were actually generating 1 watt rather than 1 kW. — Pierre-Normand

I agree that Rossi is not the ideal candidate to provide for the legitimacy of the LENR field. But, phrasing him as the sole failure if the entire field that is LENR, is a gross overgeneralization.

I agree that Rossi is not the ideal candidate to provide for the legitimacy of LENR. But, phrasing him as the sole failure if the entire field that is LENR, is a gross overgeneralization. — Posty McPostface

I'm talking about Rossi because you're the one who brought his alleged successes up for consideration. Unfortunately, the whole field seems to be a comedy of errors, self-deception, and plain deception.

See: https://www.lenr-forum.com/ — Posty McPostface

I post there under the guise known as "Promethian". I welcome any members from here, there.

Unfortunately, the whole field seems to be is a comedy of errors, self-deception, and plain deception. — Pierre-Normand

Really? You can visit that forum, specifically "Atom Ecology" along with "MacGyver (aka JohnyFive) LENR experiment", and see that that forum consists of well qualified and sincere individuals. They are on another level than me. So, I'm not qualified to describe their results.

JohnyFive — Posty McPostface

He even posted on these forums; but, I can't find his nick? I guess he was removed from the forum for some reason.

these are your options when producing copper from nickel through fusion:

58Ni + 1H → 59Cu* → 59Ni + β+ + γ + νe,
60Ni + 1H → 61Cu* → 61Ni + β+ + γ + νe,
61Ni + 1H → 62Cu* → 62Ni + β+ + γ + νe,
62Ni + 1H → 63Cu* → 63Cu + γ,
64Ni + 1H → 65Cu* → 65Cu + γ.

Three decay back into nickel, while emitting gamma radiation. The other two decay into copper by radiating gamma radiation. By all accounts Rossi should be dead. He isn't. Then considering the lack of shielding on the e-cat, it's a scam.

Three decay back into nickel, while emitting gamma radiation. The other two decay into copper by radiating gamma radiation. — Benkei

Ok, I'm going to try and flex my physic muscle. Don't laugh as a spaz when trying to do so.

This is why it's called "Low Energy"-Nuclear Reactions. I don't know the science behind it enough to explain how it's a low energy nuclear reaction. Even if we take Rossi as a particular, then if he's wrong, then there must be some shielding. Note, how all the newer versions of his reactor have some sort of shielding around them.

Anyway, since other's have demonstrated low-energy nuclear reactions, then how do you explain that?

Rossi isn't even wrong, he's a liar, plain and simple. Rossi claimed fusion by fusing hydrogen with nickel, if you're doing that the reactions are provided are your options. You can't magically wish the gamma radiation away.

As far as I'm aware the common fusion reactions all have at least beta particles. As to the other demonstrations : I can take them seriously when they're peer reviewed. I'll be happy to look into specific examples but I'm not going to look for them as most of it has turned out nonsense so far.

I'll be happy to look into specific examples but I'm not going to look for them as most of it has turned out nonsense so far. — Benkei

Wow, so you dismiss the entire field of LENR, based on a prejudice towards Rossi?

Cool.