I think Rossi is saying that the demonstration will be the first time he turns on all units in the big reactor. In my opinion, the chances of it working the first time are between zero and none, in my opinion. That is not to say it cannot work, but only that an untested machine of such complexity is bound to have problems. This is not the Chicago Pile-1. That was much simpler and it was well understood theoretically.
I told Rossi that I think the machine may be very dangerous, that I do not think he has permission from the government to turn it on, and that it would take a team of expert engineers months to turn this on, gradually working their way up from running 1 reactor to 2, 3 and so on. I urged him not to do this test, because it is dangerous, foolhardy, and has no scientific significance at all. It proves nothing that a kilowatt-scale test does not prove. He did not respond to me, but I suspect he had me in mind on some of his remarks here about "lecturers of calorimetry and engineering." For the record, in my opinion telling someone they should insert an SD card into a SD-capable meter does not rise to the level of "lecturing" about calorimetry or engineering. It is more like what you would tell a 7th grade student in a science class. The fact that he did not do this is a strong indication that he is not qualified to test a novel, untried, 1 MW nuclear reactor. He says some other unnamed "customer's consultant" will do the test. There is not enough time between now and the end of the month for a consultant to design a reasonable test that meets minimum requirements for safety and calorimetry. Unless this consultant has been working on the project for months, and has spend hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars preparing, this consultant is not qualified to do this, and in my opinion the authorities should not allow it. Steam production at 1 MW is terribly dangerous. A steam explosion from that could easily flatten a building and kill dozens of people. - Jed
