There has been a fair amount of curiosity about the 11% iron discovered in isotopic analysis by the Swedes in the Rossi sample.
It was not radioactive, and is therefore unlikely to be ash from a nuclear reaction. What is its purpose? Rossi says it is a contaminant from stainless steel, but that is extraordinarily unlikely due to the extreme amount, and also since there was no chromium in the sample. Cr is an element which is likely to leach from SS and would also be present - if stainless was the source of the iron. If you are old enough to remember amplifier tubes, then there could be a clue from that technology. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getter There are quite a few references online for iron gettering. Iron is not used a getter in most circumstances, but it is nonvolatile, ferromagnetic and does have greater oxygen affinity than nickel and is otherwise compatible. It is possible that the 11% iron seen by the Swedes in the Rossi sample was there as a getter. This is assuming that Piantelli's advice for high vacuum for contaminant (oxygen) removal is accurate. The getter would work with hot hydrogen like an ultrahigh vacuum, and is essentially 'sacrificial'. Also - in the category of nano-hydrides which seem to possess energy anomalies, the following would not be as relevant were it not for the assignee and the fact that they mention "conversion of matter into energy": http://www.google.com/patents?id=s_bWAAAAEBAJ&printsec=drawing#v=onepage&q&f =false Jones
<<attachment: winmail.dat>>
