Is the so-called "battery" reactor "chemical" or otherwise ? this is an interesting question.
If the fuel is depleted Uranium, and there is a lot of that stuff around, then the operation could be related to recycling reactants - using both the heat and gamma flux from radioactive decay to reduce the oxide. However, unlike the "RTG" type satellite reactors, which use heat from Pu decay and then thermoelectric conversion into electricity - this new slant would be different in two ways. Obviously, it would be nice to know for sure- how it works. Why is it such a secret? Depleted U is actually more radioactive than natural, but far less than Pu (much longer half-life), but with enough of it in place (10 tons ?) - then one might be able to engineer and cycle a portion of it from a low gamma "cathode zone" where it oxidizes with oxygen, creating even more heat and releasing some hydrogen, and then is replenished and recycled back into an anode zone, where it is reduced back to metal hydride, using both the hydrogen, full gamma, and some parasitic electrical drain. Never seen this mentioned- total speculation but if current is being reused, then LENR could be a contributing factor. IOW this scenario is most unlikely - but everything about the sparce description of this reactor is both unlikely, and suspicious. ... or maybe the BLP announcement today - has tainted everything and made me more suspicious than is reasonable - Ha! shades of the ghost of Art Rosenblum and the infamous Mills interview over a decades ago where Randy sez point-blank: operating hydrino reactor will be available in two years... Art fell for it, as did most everyone else. RIP Art Rosenblum: http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/JohnJudge/linkscopy/ArtRosenblum.html Jones
