Nuclear Fusion breakthrough?

[coppice]

After the F-35 Fiasco, they've been on a pretty short leash from the US Government.  The military didn't have much sense of humor about the scale of those overruns.

The F35 is pretty much business as usual for the defence industry. Its a little more extreme and publicised than usual, but nothing too extreme. The three golden rules of defence contracting are never to be:

• On spec
• On time
• On budget

There is no way to squeeze more money from the tax payers if you break these rules.

[TerraHertz]

Speaking of fusion curiosities, there's been an interesting development in the Rossi e-cat saga.

20141011
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Cold_fusion_reactor_verified_by_third-party_researchers%2C_seems_to_have_1_million_times_the_energy_density_of_gasoline/38508/0/38/38/Y/M.html
COLD FUSION REACTOR VERIFIED BY THIRD-PARTY RESEARCHERS, SEEMS TO HAVE 1 MILLION TIMES THE ENERGY DENSITY OF GASOLINE
Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat — the device that purports to use cold fusion to generate massive amounts of cheap, green energy – has been verified by third-party researchers, according to a new 54-page report.

This is the report:
http://www.sifferkoll.se/sifferkoll/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/LuganoReportSubmit.pdf   2MB

Quite a fascinating read.

[LabSpokane]

It's worth noting that there was a fusion conference in Russia this week. Instead of giving a presentation, Lockheed stayed home and issued a press release. Anyone find that just wee bit odd for a Fortune 100 company with a supposedly world-changing fusion power source?

And Rossi's e-cat is just complete horseshit. It has never been submitted for a true Eout / Ein evaluation.  It has to stay plugged in and Rossi refuses to let the power in be measured. Then there's the absence of liberated neutrons from the fusion reaction. And the lack of corresponding radiation. Oh, and Rossi himself?  He's a convicted criminal. Look it up..

Want to evaluate a new power source?  Check your wants, hopes, beliefs and the rest of it at the laboratory door.  Power sources are testable and repeatable. There is no reason to want, hope, or believe anything about any of them. Anyone who comes to you with one of these magic power systems who won't submit it for independent "black box" testing of Ein and Eout needs to get their ass kicked out the door with extreme prejudice. 

[HP-ILnerd]

Anybody recognize the test gear in the rack in the background?
It'd be interesting to know what the Skunkworks would use to tinker with a fusion reactor confinement test article.
Much looks familiar...

[Nermash]

It's worth noting that there was a fusion conference in Russia this week. Instead of giving a presentation, Lockheed stayed home and issued a press release. Anyone find that just wee bit odd for a Fortune 100 company with a supposedly world-changing fusion power source?

Because there  is a new cold war going on between USA-Russia?

And Rossi's e-cat is just complete horseshit. It has never been submitted for a true Eout / Ein evaluation.  It has to stay plugged in and Rossi refuses to let the power in be measured. Then there's the absence of liberated neutrons from the fusion reaction. And the lack of corresponding radiation. Oh, and Rossi himself?  He's a convicted criminal. Look it up..

Just yesterday I went to ecat website, there is a new report there done by professors at Bologna uni, claiming COP of 3-4, and excess heat which could not have been produced by a chemical reaction of reactor contents. However the issue of complete absence of neutrons is still there...
I agree that Rossi's life was colourfull to say the least

[AndyC_772]

Rossi refuses to let the power in be measured.

It's in the report, page 24.

[mikeselectricstuff]

I had a read through the e-cat report and there are some highly questionable methods.
Why would you use an AC heater and triac controller when DC would be far easier to measure accurately without any doubt over issues like power factor.
Why would you attempt to measure the output with a thermal imaging camera when you could just wind a water coil at a suitable distance to maintain the required temperature and measure actual heat output with a much higher degree of confidence.

If this thing was real it would be very easy to set up a demo that was completely convincing and couldn't be realistically challenged. Yet once again we see unnecessarily convoluted test methods and secrecy, giving rise to a strong smell of bullshit.

As someone on Slashdot commented, these things should be evaluated not only by scientists, who come at things with a narrow mindset and aren't used to being tricked or misled , but also by people experienced in spotting fraud, trickery and misdirection, like magicians.

[coppice]

As someone on Slashdot commented, these things should be evaluated not only by scientists, who come at things with a narrow mindset and aren't used to being tricked or misled , but also by people experienced in spotting fraud, trickery and misdirection, like magicians.

Oh come on. Next you'll be trying to convince us that Yuri Geller can't bend spoons with the power of his mind. 

[tom66]

Build your own fusion reactor...
http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/

[coppice]

Build your own fusion reactor...
http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/

Achieving non-explosive fusion is no challenge at all. People have been doing it, with practical and inexpensive medical applications, since the 1960s. Achieving more energy out of controlled fusion than you put in to create it is the challenge.

[TerraHertz]

I had a read through the e-cat report and there are some highly questionable methods.
Why would you use an AC heater and triac controller when DC would be far easier to measure accurately without any doubt over issues like power factor.

It's not a triac controller. Observe the interestingly square pulse waveforms shown.
Edit: Hmm. looking at it again I don't know what those waveforms are. Stupid little obscure display. Are they total power envelope? What timescale? How come 'up' and 'down' pulses? Don't even know what the units are.
Some scope captures of the actual drive signals would have been nice.

I found this aspect very interesting. There are three 'phases' of heater coils, and yet it _isn't_ using the obviously simplest form of heater control - triacs, with either zero crossing cycle on/off pulsing or phase control.
Why?
Also, why three separate heaters and not just one?

Given that there's clearly some unconventional physics going on (unless the supposedly independent reviewers are flat out lying about the isotope ratio shifts, or they had a trick pulled on them, and my gut feeling is they are not lying and weren't tricked), perhaps those odd aspects of the drive system are fundamental to the process? I'd be inclined to expect that simply heating a sample of the same fuel material up to that temperature, with a flame, or simple electric heater, won't achieve anything.

There's also the aspect that whatever the process was, the signals applied via the heating coils were apparently exerting a control influence, beyond simple temperature control. Lots of excess power output, but it didn't run away? Interesting.

So when you say "highly questionable methods" I think you are confusing the machine, and the methods chosen by the investigation team to examine it. They're given the machine and can't change how it operates, or there'd be no point. They have to choose methods suitable for the constraints imposed by the nature of the device as provided to them.

Why would you attempt to measure the output with a thermal imaging camera when you could just wind a water coil at a suitable distance to maintain the required temperature and measure actual heat output with a much higher degree of confidence.

A full calorimetry setup would be quite difficult for something like that. Since the device has to run at around 1000 deg C,  you'd have to have a fairly large enclosure with heat exchangers some distance from the device. Which makes insulation, feed-throughs, and visual observation of the device difficult. It would also be expensive, and take time to set up.

If this thing was real it would be very easy to set up a demo that was completely convincing and couldn't be realistically challenged. Yet once again we see unnecessarily convoluted test methods and secrecy, giving rise to a strong smell of bullshit.

As someone on Slashdot commented, these things should be evaluated not only by scientists, who come at things with a narrow mindset and aren't used to being tricked or misled , but also by people experienced in spotting fraud, trickery and misdirection, like magicians.

I'd like to know whether Rossi or any of his associates were present during the tests the report discusses. I got the impression he wasn't, but I don't recall them specifically saying he wasn't. Need to re-read it with that question in mind. He's mentioned, but was it just phone conversations, etc, or was he ever in the room?

[mikeselectricstuff]

A full calorimetry setup would be quite difficult for something like that. Since the device has to run at around 1000 deg C,  you'd have to have a fairly large enclosure with heat exchangers some distance from the device. Which makes insulation, feed-throughs, and visual observation of the device difficult. It would also be expensive, and take time to set up.

True but if it's producing such a large surplus, all you'd need to show as that it was producing more energy in the water than the input power, so even with a very lossy system, a positive result here would be convincing.
 At 1000 Deg a lot of the heat would be radiated, so just putting  a U-shaped water jacket a few inches above it would catch a large proportion of radiated and convected heat.

[mzzj]

Lockheed did very little to enhance its credibility with this release. They have yet to fuse anything. It sounds like the project has simply run out of funding and internal goodwill and is looking for outside money just to survive. If their prototype was actually working, there would not be a solicitation in the form of a press release. Lockheed would simply build a reactor and own everything.

my thoughts exactly. Lot of would if - marketing bullshit.
I bet they are looking for more funding. Maybe they should go crowd-sourcing

[HP-ILnerd]

Interesting.  Was poking around, and not only is LockMart not "just a defense contractor" they seem to be getting into the energy biz on several fronts:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2014/10/16/lockheed-martins-fusion-breakthrough-is-just-one-piece-of-its-fast-growing-energy-portfolio/

The fusion program can't be random then.  It's obviously part of a bigger strategy.

[nctnico]

Cheap energy is the 20th and 21st century's fools gold.

[LabSpokane]

A full calorimetry setup would be quite difficult for something like that. Since the device has to run at around 1000 deg C,  you'd have to have a fairly large enclosure with heat exchangers some distance from the device. Which makes insulation, feed-throughs, and visual observation of the device difficult. It would also be expensive, and take time to set up.

The builder of a thermal power source is solely and 100% responsible for the heat exchangers to capture the energy and generate power. It is the device's raison d'être after all. It is not anyone else's responsibility to guess. Heat exchangers are not mysterious and are readily available - even in Italy.

It matters not if one can see the device. One can't see a fission reactor during normal operation. We set the bounding box to encompass the reactor and it's turbine and measure the output power versus the parasitic load of the systems it needs to operate.

It doesn't matter what what the theory of operation is either.  The device could run on powdered unicorns and sea monkeys. For a fission/fusion device, one measures Ein and Eout. Either there is a net energy gain or there is not. 

Science and engineering make qualifying such devices simple. The liars and fools selling mystery energy machines always make the tests hard and non-objective. 

[nitro2k01]

Anybody recognize the test gear in the rack in the background?
It'd be interesting to know what the Skunkworks would use to tinker with a fusion reactor confinement test article.
Much looks familiar...

Time to test my image Google-fu!


Rows 1-2: 2 * HP/Agilent 6032A power supply. 60V, 50A.


Row 3, on the left: BK Precision 1737 dual range power supply. 30V/3A or 60V/2A.

Row 3, on the right: For the longest time, I saw an instrument with a small screen and a big brown screen before I realized it's a smaller instrument with a leather carry case on top.  I cannot make out what device is on the bottom, but it's likely another lab power supply.


Row 4: Tektronix PS280. Yet another DC power supply. Who would've guessed? :p Triple output. One fixed 5V/3A and two variable 30V/2A outputs.


Row 5: HP/Agilent/Peeshite (sorry) 8648D RF signal generator. 9 kHz-4 GHz.


Rows 6-7: HP Agilent 8753C network analyzer + 85047A S-Parameter test set. 300 kHz-6 GHz.

Row 8-10: Too low detail to be useful in image searches. My guess would be power amplifiers and/or yet more power supplies.

[HP-ILnerd]

nitro2k01:

Nice!  The Network Analyzer totally threw me.  Convinced myself I was looking at one of those old HP scopes from when they had a fascination with buttons instead of knobs.  Oops.

[eneuro]