Well, bringing up the SRI fatality is certainly a downer ... but lets
face it - any hydrogen gas experiment is almost guaranteed to proceed to
an explosion when ... as the Paper says:
" the cell was pressurized with about 30 atm of stoichiometric gas
(deuterium/ oxygen) the morning of January 2"
WOW ! That amount of explosive gas will cause a major explosion with
almost complete certainty, but it does not address the lack of a
pressure release valve. This kind of cell is probably rated to no more
than 5 atm.
There have been many deaths associated with trying to store
stoichiometric HHO gas (hydrogen/ oxygen) for automotive use - as many
as four fatalities in SoCal (Simi Valley) which used to be a center for
HHO research by underqualified experimenters. They never seemed to get
it. You do not need a spark to ignite this gas - the occasional cosmic
ray is probably sufficient with pure hydrogen and oxygen mixed together
under pressure.
Rothwell states that SRI blames "the malfunction of fail-safe safety
devices" however, in my reading I find no reference to the existence of
a basic pressure release valve. None at all.
This is most bizarre, and maybe I missed it but the drawing of the cell
does not show one either, and from what I can tell they spend a lot of
time talking about the failure of the recombiner, but there is no
pressure release valve mentioned. That is a major shortcoming of the design.
Pressure release valves almost never fail and when they do it is in the
open position. Also note that in their recommendations for future safety
- they do NOT MENTION ADDING A PRESSURE RELEASE VALVE.
Rothwell also states: "it had nothing to do with the size of the cathode."
My comment: No one can possibly know that from this document - since
they do not mention the size or mass of the cathode. An abnormally large
cathode would seem to increase storage potential of reactant, but the
image seems to show small wire cathodes... however, note that the anodes
(Pd Cylindrical Anodes) are considerably larger than the cathode in the
drawing.
This could be relevant in the event that Randell Mills is correct about
hydrino hydride (deuterino deuteride) which he claims has residual
negative charge from two very close orbitals, and would collect in the
anode, not the cathode.
See:
http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/IkegamiHthirdinter.pdf#page=147
