Yes, this is the big question. If it worked, why didnt it blow up?
I have calculated elsewhere in this forum that it is technical possible
to dissipate the heat with a big ventilated air heatexchanger.
This is believable to me.
But the big unsolved question for me is:
Steam temperature was 105°C. So the absolute pressure of steam is 1.2
bar or less. (respective 0.2 bar above air pressure)
It was calculated before that the steam must reach a speed of some
100km/h with those pipes that where seen before.
This speed seems to be impossible at this low pressure.
So this must be explained.
Possibly Rossi should publish basic and raw technical data about the
water and steam path, pipe diameters and lengths and heat exchangers and
so on.
This can impossibly been kept as a proprietary secret, there is nothing
secret about this.
And please note: I dont doubt it in order to destroy it. I doubt it to
find the truth. Doubting the truth is the best way find and to to harden it.
This is the scientific way. It is slow, but produces hard results.
Of course I would be happy to find it to be true, but with this open
question I cannot say that I can understand and believe it.
Peter
Am 29.10.2011 04:37, schrieb Jed Rothwell:
Also, this was not a colossal disappointment to me because, hey, it
did not blow up. As readers here know, I was seriously worried the
damn thing might explode or irradiate the audience. I am relieved that
nothing like that happened. It seemed to work at 1/2 of nameplate
power. For a reactor they just finished building, that's fantastic.
That is as good as 1 MW.
Rossi is much braver than I am, or much more foolhardy, or both.
As you hear in this video, I am not the only one who is worried about
radiation and other dangers. So are the Italian authorities, as well
they should be:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLAdGduQ50A
Rossi says here that they issued some sort of conditional permit, with
restrictions. That is the sort of thing you would expect for an
experimental device. That sounds plausible. It is what I would expect
a responsible government official to issue.
I still think it was much too big a reactor, and I still think the
test schedule was too fast. But evidently Rossi and the Italian
officials share some of my concerns about safety and that's good.
I predicted that a major company such as GE or Mitsubishi would want
to get involved in such risky tests. Perhaps I was wrong and this was
a big company. But if it was an up-and-coming profitable, risk-taking
place such as Manutencoop, that may be the kind of thing they would
get into. Back in the go-go late 1960s, companies such as Data General
used to get involved in risky start-up technology. According to "Soul
of a New Machine" there were rumors that Data General was involved in
some actual physical risk and possibly criminal behavior such as
burning down the buildings of rival companies.
- Jed
