Clarification of previous posting:
... since I may check back on this prediction in January 2007
(typically as a humbling experience, as I am no prophet) and since
excimer near-UV lasers have indeed already been used in CF prior
to now (successfully), let me hedge a little on this 'New Year
prediction for 2006' which is specifically for the application of
solid-state UV to a Letts/Cravens type LENR cell (which is
magnetized).
Furthermore, and most importantly I think the results will be so
spectacular that a clear route to a commercial device will then be
evident (at least to futurists). This is significant in itself
because the "end-game" has never really been all that evident in
LENR before (outside of JR's book, which is not that specific as
to the details of the device itself). By 'end-game' it is meant a
clear picture of what the commercial device will look like in
detail.
This predicted upcoming experiment will point directly to the
advantage of using many very small LENR cells which are irradiated
by UV in addition to having electrical contacts (to retain the
full gas loading) plus it will have dual levels of etched
microchannels - one for admitting pressurized D2 gas and the other
for circulating the coolant to the TEC/TEPG (thermoelectric
converter) cells - all formed on the same "chip" structure. The
semiconductor laser and the TEC semiconductor used different types
of semiconductors, so this may be a hybrid arrangement but the
point is that -in effect - we have a 'integrated energy circuit,'
manufactured using the well-know microlithography techniques of
the semicondutor industry.
Here is information already alluded to many times on vortex over
the years about advanced TEC/TEPG ... which is going ro be both
"nano" and "etched" in commercial devices:
http://www.azonano.com/news.asp?newsID=738
http://quantum.soe.ucsc.edu/publications/HoKiScience04.pdf
To backtrack a bit in the historical context: in '97-98 the
Italians were already using UV irradiation and with great success
(but apparently not many here remember it). Vincenzo Nassisi et
al. did work reported in Infinite Energy, July-November 1997
"Morphologic Deformation and Distribution of Generated Elements in
Saturated Palladium Samples Processed by a UV Excimer Laser,"
This article reports on the experimental results obtained from
very thin saturated palladium hydrides irradiated by a XeCl
excimer laser (bulky and inefficient). The wavelength was over 300
nm which actually is "near UV" but nevertheless the results were
so successful and professionally done that one wonders what became
of it. It should be noted that solid-state UV was NOT available
then, and perhaps the Italian researchers could not imagine a
successful "end game" based on using the eximer laser - so they
did not press for continued funding. A short-sighted delay, let us
say.
However, the massive transmutation of many elements was evident in
this work - and in very high percentages at the NAS (nuclear
active sites). IN fact almost no Pd was left at those sites. No
calorimetry was done, due to the contraints of the experment, but
with this much nuclear transmutation, surely there is significant
excess energy potential and without radiation risks (which were
absent).
This experiment begs to be repeated using loaded-titanium as the
target, and solid state lasers, which are also now at the "near
UV' level of around 300 nm. When they reach 150 nm, then an
additional 3200% of spectral energy density will be available. At
that point, the 'end-game will be crystal clear and
commercialization is almost inevitable ;-)
Yeah, I know. That may be well past 2006, but let's hear it for
'optimism' at least at the first of January.
This Italian job - and so many other promising experiments were
perhaps a few years ahead of their time, and probably fell victim
to funding contstraints, but to me the impressive results are 'one
more brick in the wall' of growing "Connections" (in the tradition
of Burke) which will eventually enclose the LENR arena and usher
in a new age of cheap distributed power.
How is that for a promising-poetic-prediction? ... and why am I
sounding like a one-man-band when it comes to exuding a high
degree of optimisim for LENR in 2006?
Jones
