To clear up one detail, there is a looming question: “why is this Mizuno device not a more sophisticated version of the Farnsworth Fusor?”
It can be acknowledged that there are similarities. The Fusor is a deuterium
plasma device which can employ nickel as the electrode (tungsten is usually
chosen). However, plasma contact with the electrode is avoided, and there is
convergence in a target zone in the Fusor … and the electrode surface area
would be about 10^6 times lower while the voltage is much higher.
Moreover, the Fusor is hot fusion. And it is thousands of times below
breakeven, and produces no significant heat at all. Tritium and helium-3 are
created, but hydrogen is not transmuted from deuterium, and gamma rays are
emitted. Typically a well constructed Fusor will produce around 10,000
neutrons per second and the average energy released is 3.5 MeV per fusion
event. This is about 50,000 times below breakeven.
In contrast, Mizuno’s version essentially is converting deuterium into
hydrogen at thermal levels which are 100,000 times greater than a Fusor, yet
with no gamma radiation. The neutron production is unknown.
_____________________________________________
Final note: Mizuno saw 108 MJ of gain over
30 days at COP of 1.9 - his net output was about 8 MJ per day, on average.
For Roulette et al, the next best result in the history of deuterium LENR,
there was 294 MJ is net output over 152 days at COP of 1.5, or about 2 MJ
per day but with less actual net gain than Mizuno (less than 108 MJ of gain
due to the lower COP).
Therefore, the Mizuno experiment is about 4
times more robust in net energy than the best prior result in LENR for which
adequate data exists but over 600% more robust, based on net gain.
The next step for this ground-breaking experiment is the
analysis, and then the implications – which will be controversial. That is
why there has been scarcely a peep from many “experts” on this paradigm
shift in LENR. They do not like the implications and especially not Storms,
who essentially ignored this in his recent book.
In fact, the results overturn several pillars of entrenched
thinking which are lingering from the “cold fusion era”; but some of the
conclusions may hinge on the final radiation results, which were not
presented at MIT but were summarized by Yoshino to others there.
Here are some main talking points.
1) It took 24 years of trying to greatly improve Pd-D results, yet the
main reasons for the vast improvement are simple and two-fold. Switch from
palladium to nickel wire as the cathode and run the experiment as a plasma.
2) The SEM image after activation shows no evidence of Storms’ active
“cracks”. The Ni surface is suggestive of micron-sized spheres, possibly
formed by adsorption of hydrogen, which result is highly suggestive of
Rossi’s description of his nickel surface. i.e. “sphericules”.
3) This experiment is devastating to Storm’s theory in several ways.
There is no helium in the ash.
4) This experiment is problematic for Mills recent demo, since Mizuno
tried heavy water vapor and found it did not work in the presence of a Mills
catalyst (nickel)
5) The nickel is said to be in the form of a “mesh” but in fact,
consists of 200 meters of .2 mm nickel wire which is arranged in a mesh-like
blob, reminiscent of a ladies hairdo from the sixties.
6) While H2 shows irregular gain, D2 is more active and D2O in not
active.
7) The experiment was monitored for radiation, yet the information was
omitted. This information is critical to understanding. Yoshino told Ahern
that no gamma radiation was seen. Since Yoshino did include slides showing
the neutron cross-section of Ni58, the implication is that neutrons have
been seen.
8) Given the long history between Jed Rothwell and Mizuno, it is hoped
that Jed and vortex will be the first to see this very important information
which may indicate the presence of neutrons.
9) If there are significant neutrons, this indicates that the Oppenheim
Phillips effect could be part of the gain, yet since H2 was also gainful,
neutrons probably indicate that two different gainful effects have been seen
possibly more than two.
10) Neutrons have been the desired goal (to find) since 1989. In short,
this could be the final fulfillment of everything which PF wanted to
demonstrate but never could – reliable excess heat and neutrons.
11) Too bad PF did not think of the simple expedient of going to nickel
wire in a plasma.
Jones
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