Rossi had a third party investigation of his hot ecat. They should have done flow calorimetry, but the tests they did show interesting results.
There are rumors on the internet that Intergo (Rossi related company) has raised a lot of money. This fact fits with both the fraud conspiracy and the real deal theories.
Looking at what might be at work if it is the real deal
In 2011, Rossi has indicated Hydrogen and nickel was the mechanism.
Rossi said that about 30% of nickel was turned into copper, after 6 months of uninterrupted operation.
If it is nickel and neutrons
If nickel isotopes are the key
* start with highly enriched nickel 62
* get a cheap source of neutrons at 10^14 neutrons per second
* get a lot of nickel 63 and then have an environment that accelerates decay to copper
This would generate a lot of energy with radiation that would not escape a metal container and would have stable copper as an end product.
Note - a less controversial way to get to this would be to have super-efficient enrichment with say laser enrichment and then having some other cheap neutron source.
GE - Global Laser Enrichment received a construction and operation licence in September, 2012 for a full-scale laser enrichment facility in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Nickel 63 is unstable and will beta decay into copper. There is radiation. The radiation is easy to stopped with a piece of paper.
Beta radiation is easily shielded. The level of shielding depends on the energy of the beta radiation. The Ni-63 found in ECDs is easily shielded by even a sheet of paper because of its very low energy of emission. Thus this isotope has virtually no external radiation risk, though it certainly can be a dangerous source of internal exposure if the source is leaking.
Intense magnetic fields can induce beta decay based on a 1983 paper in Physical Review Letters.
Details around Nickel 63 energy
Natural nickel consists of five stable isotopes:
nickel-58 (68.27 percent)
nickel-60 (26.10 percent)
nickel-61 (1.13 percent)
nickel-62 (3.59 percent)
and nickel-64 (0.91 percent)
The Russians had tried to make industrial quantities of Nickel 63 for power generation.
Nickel-63 (a pure beta-emitter with a half-life of 100 years) is one of the most promising radionuclides that can be used in miniature autonomous electric power sources with a service life of above 30 years (nuclear batteries) working on the betavoltaic effect.
The maximum energy of beta-particles in the 63Ni emission spectrum is 65 keV, which is much lower than the threshold of radiation damage in the semiconductors intended for use - silicon and gallium arsenide.
If Rossi was using say 80% enriched Nickel 62 and then the device was producing a neutron flux then the Nickel 63 would be generated and would then give off energy and decay to Copper
Read more at NBF
There are rumors on the internet that Intergo (Rossi related company) has raised a lot of money. This fact fits with both the fraud conspiracy and the real deal theories.
Looking at what might be at work if it is the real deal
In 2011, Rossi has indicated Hydrogen and nickel was the mechanism.
Rossi said that about 30% of nickel was turned into copper, after 6 months of uninterrupted operation.
If it is nickel and neutrons
If nickel isotopes are the key
* start with highly enriched nickel 62
* get a cheap source of neutrons at 10^14 neutrons per second
* get a lot of nickel 63 and then have an environment that accelerates decay to copper
This would generate a lot of energy with radiation that would not escape a metal container and would have stable copper as an end product.
Note - a less controversial way to get to this would be to have super-efficient enrichment with say laser enrichment and then having some other cheap neutron source.
Nickel 63 is unstable and will beta decay into copper. There is radiation. The radiation is easy to stopped with a piece of paper.
Beta radiation is easily shielded. The level of shielding depends on the energy of the beta radiation. The Ni-63 found in ECDs is easily shielded by even a sheet of paper because of its very low energy of emission. Thus this isotope has virtually no external radiation risk, though it certainly can be a dangerous source of internal exposure if the source is leaking.
Intense magnetic fields can induce beta decay based on a 1983 paper in Physical Review Letters.
Details around Nickel 63 energy
Natural nickel consists of five stable isotopes:
nickel-58 (68.27 percent)
nickel-60 (26.10 percent)
nickel-61 (1.13 percent)
nickel-62 (3.59 percent)
and nickel-64 (0.91 percent)
The Russians had tried to make industrial quantities of Nickel 63 for power generation.
Nickel-63 (a pure beta-emitter with a half-life of 100 years) is one of the most promising radionuclides that can be used in miniature autonomous electric power sources with a service life of above 30 years (nuclear batteries) working on the betavoltaic effect.
The maximum energy of beta-particles in the 63Ni emission spectrum is 65 keV, which is much lower than the threshold of radiation damage in the semiconductors intended for use - silicon and gallium arsenide.
Read more at NBF