If there is a real DDL species in LENR (hydrogen isomer with electron orbital at less than 10 Fermi), even if it is a transitory species with a lifetime of only nanoseconds, then there is a way for nickel to provide the thermal gain, by spin coupling with no fusion required. In fact, if there is such a DDL species, chances are that it could be a transitory oscillator, such that the rate of oscillation is resonant with the phonon rate of nickel.
Rice and Kim show here that the DDL is not stable for extended periods. They do not show that the DDL is impossible... http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/RiceRAcommentsona.pdf but they also demonstrate that they do not understand Mills' CQM theory To overcome the objections to the DDL, and to nickel spin coupling, please consider all of these points as a package, and not individually. Back in early 2011, we talked about the final revision of the Rossi patent filing. In his application Rossi's bets everything on Ni62 as THE important reactant - US 2011/0005506. His reasoning could be incorrect, but it is likely that Rossi tested pure isotopes and found that Ni-62 was indeed the active isotope. Otherwise Rossi would not have bet the farm on one isotope, since ... if he is wrong on that single detail he has lost all protection against infringement. QUOTE from application: "Accordingly, it is indispensable to use, for the above mentioned exothermal reactions, a nickel isotope having a mass number of 62". That pretty much says it all when we consider the properties of this isotope (and if we ignore Rossi's reasoning in the patent for why this isotope works). He could be "right for the wrong reason". BTW - the patent was granted in Europe to his wife Maddalena Pascucci, who is an attorney, and presumably had good advice on patent law - but again - the US application is not granted. However, the USA is a signator to the PCT so Pascucci could get protection here for the nickel-62 part - and perhaps for little else. Why Ni-62 ... and why bet the farm? Nickel-62 is at the very pinnacle of stability - having the highest binding energy per nucleon in the entire Periodic Table (8.8 MeV). There is no more stable isotope known to science. This binding stability would actually prohibit it from participating in proton nuclear fusion reactions, as Rossi suggested, but would allow spin energy (part of the binding energy) to be coupled and depleted - simply because there is plenty to spare. Too bad that he did not realize this distinction. BTW - it is duly noted that other nickel and iron isotopes have very high binding energy as well, but a lot of weight goes to Rossi's testing of isotopes against each other. That is what is meant by Rossi being "right for the wrong reason" This stability of Ni-62, combined with ferromagnetism is especially relevant for the combination of a strong magnet with a material which cannot be saturated; and the DDL, with an effective field strength at the 10 Fermi level in the range of giga-T (billions of Tesla) is that strong magnet. Deraz - claims there is no saturation level for NiO, and even if doubts are warranted on that particular point, it could be important in the context of spin coupling to find an extreme level of saturation capability, with which to mate with giga-T fields. The result is spin coupling. www.electrochemsci.org/papers/vol7/7054608.pdf In short, as of now, with dozens of alternative theories floating around for the gain in Ni-H, the best emerging scenario - from my perspective seems to be one which is 1) No fusion occurs in Ni-H. It is a different beast that Pd-D. 2) But the gain is Nuclear, in the sense of mass conversion into energy 3) It is Nanomagnetic in the sense that spin energy is involved at small geometry 4) Probably involves a transitory version of the DDL, which oscillates at IR frequency, due to SPP interaction at the top and spin coupling at the bottom, such that the collapse and reinflation are slightly asymmetric in energy 5) Thus there is net heat. 6) The gain comes mostly from Ni-62 by spin coupling to its high level of composite spin, 7) Oxygen if present in the nickel in small amounts could allow increased saturation capability 8) It is not clear if the Ni-62 gives up some of its own mass, or is a gateway to the Dirac "sea" ... Either way, this is LENR but it is also "non-fusion LENR" Any and all of these suggestion are subject to change as soon as better data arrives. All we can do now is look at the big picture as being shadows on Plato's cave.
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