noone noone <[email protected]> wrote: Safety is NOT the big issue here. The biggest issue is if this works. >
On the contrary, some of Rossi's messages indicate that safety is a big issue, and it is not assured. > If the NRC has a problem with this technology I think that Rossi should > just go to African nations, China, or India and try to license it to them. . > . . > There is entrenched opposition to cold fusion within the DoE, the APS, the Patent Office, the Scientific American and some other institutions. I have not heard that the NCR is opposed to it. I doubt they know anything about it. They probably have no idea it exists. Let us not assume they will oppose it. The opposition stems from academic politics. It is not caused by "Big Oil" or other industries that fear competition. As far as I know, Big Oil does not have a clue that cold fusion exists. (As far as I know may extend a little further than how far you know, because I have some insight into the extent of public knowledge from reader interactions and traffic at LENR-CANR.org.) Anyway, with regard to the NRC and running Rossi devices in other countries: 1. If 5 or 10 working reactors to provide process heat, or power generators, are deployed in Italy or anywhere in the First World, word will get back to European and U.S. regulatory authorities. Word will also get back to the APS and the DoE sooner or later. They may even be forced to believe it. Maybe not; but people's ability to deny reality is remarkable. Consider, for example, that the Japanese military did not want to surrender even after two nuclear weapons were dropped on Japan. 2. In my opinion, if the NRC and equivalent European regulators do not step in and insist that the Rossi devices be turned off immediately, they will be grossly negligent. Criminally negligent. These devices MUST be subjected to extensive safety testing before being deployed. I mean tests costing hundreds of millions of dollars. If one of the reactors goes out of control and hurts someone or kills someone, in my opinion that would be such a serious matter it would call for a Congressional Investigation in the U.S., and in Europe or Japan it would be reason enough to bring down a government, or at least compel the Prime Minister to fire the regulatory and Energy Department heads. As much as I support cold fusion, the notion that it should be deployed by amateurs without careful testing and regulations strike me as lunacy. Not only is that likely to kill someone, it is likely to seriously damage the reputation of cold fusion. As I said before, if the NRC or some other regulatory agency declares Rossi's devices must be tested and regulated, that would be tantamount to declaring that cold fusion is real. A fake device cannot be subject to regulation by a nuclear safety agency. At most, it would call for an investigation from an agency to prevent consumer fraud. If a consumer fraud investigator or a state ADA shows up at a factory and finds a 1 MW power reactor in operation, with the owner satisfied the thing is working according to the sales contract, the investigator will have no case and no authority to intervene. I would welcome NRC intervention. In the long term, it would help Rossi, although in the short term it would put the kibosh on his plans. I think his plans are unrealistic in any case. - Jed
