> > > Is there any way to guesstimate – assuming the best reasonable kind of > insulation is added to retain heat, something like aerogel, etc – how much > more mass of active wire (if any) would be necessary to get close to a > nominally self-sustaining system?**** > > ** ** > > Jones**** >
That would be very easy to do, no need for anything fancy, just wrap it in Fiberglass insulation and tape it on, like lagging a pipe. Quick mental calculation suggests on the order of 0.1W per cm of thickness per degree of temperature differential, so for 15W and 100 degree temperature differential you would need about 6mm thickness of fiberglass. Would only take 5-10 minute to set up. Bigger problem is stopping it from over-heating. Ideally need to surround it in a heat sink with a controllable temperature - eg 120°C so that as the reactor gets hotter than that it will rapidly start to transfer heat to the heat sink. Want the heat sink close to the reactor operating temperature (I think this was one of Rossi's problems in getting safe controllability last year) So put the whole reactor inside a really well insulated metal container filled with oil that can be heated up to as much as 190°C, and perhaps a way of dripping water into the oil if you need to get rid of heat (20cc water per hour would do it for 12W) The oil will prevent rapid thermal run-aways with it's thermal inertia.
