At 01:39 PM 8/23/2012, ChemE Stewart wrote:
I agree with Jed on safety. In the US these devices would need to pass ASME, NFPA, OSHA, UL certifications as well as NRC guidelines which I have no familiarity with but I am sure will apply based upon the preliminary results DGT is showing of transmutations, low level radiation, heat & operating pressures and temperatures.
Investigational devices, sold with appropriate warnings, etc., would not need to meet those requirements.
If these companies are serious about licensing the technology, the first step would be to sell investigational devices. They could immediately become profitable.
Electronics companies do it with stuff they sell. They sell development kits, allowing demonstration circuit boards to be built. They make money on those kits, and are advertising their product at the same time.
If they accurately represent the kits, don't oversell them, stand behind them (like by replacing inoperable devices), they could sell even unreliable devices.
However, this strategy would require being quite open about what capabilities they really have.
My general conclusion, so far, is that they don't have reliability down. That could, of course, change at any time.
