From: Bob Higgins * * I think the heater is a heater; and Kanthal as the heater wire has nothing to do with it. We now believe that Rossi may have used a SiC heater element and that also has no Ni.
The SiC is nonsense. You have no basis for the belief that kanthal has nothing to do with it, and in fact the evidence may now indicate that kanthal is the major problem. To the extent that SPP is an important factor, then nickel contact with hydrogen in the presence of SPP could be the critical factor. * * I also don't believe that the H2 just comes out through the 99.8% high purity alumina reactor tube. Then you are mistaken. The purity is immaterial – the porosity is everything. Of course, if MFMP used a fused tube then that is another design flaw. * * The tubes MFMP bought were formed with one end closed, so a seal was needed only on one end. That was a good choice, but the evidence now, based on a history of Ni-H reactions going back to Thermacore in 1993 - is that high nickel content is required. Bob, you are to be greatly commended for a great effort here but please do not let your ego get in the way, if you are the one who made the choice for kanthal. Everything we know about this type of reaction indicates that nickel is active – and the sub-gram of nickel inside is simply insufficient for proper reactivity. Jones
