From: Jed Rothwell
Mark Jurich wrote:
One way around this issue (and I'm sure many of us realize
this) is to enrich the Nickel partially in some isotope and do an experiment
or set of experiments. For example, let's say one halves or slightly
manipulates the 61Ni abundance (This should drop the cost.).
You can put isotopes in, enhancing the level of one or
another. But you cannot take them out, as far as I know. The people at Los
Alamos or whoever isolates the monoisotopes are the only ones who can remove
an isotope.
The price list I saw in Japan said the source of the
monoisotopic samples was a U.S. National Lab. I do not recall which one.
In looking at all the evidence...There is ample evidence that nickel alone is sufficient for robust gain (most of the time), but... there is also ample evidence that robust reactors suddenly go into "quiescence" unexpectedly and ...there is ample evidence that a reactor which has been working well when shut done, cannot be restarted to a satisfactory level... (thus - the several failed demos of Rossi to Krivit and NASA that gave him a bad reputation early last year). All of this is consistent with depletion of an isotope in a surface layer, where the active isotope is a minority isotope. This could also be a dilution effect where an active isotope heats up more than the others and is forced into the bulk material so that it cannot contact hydrogen as easily. There is also evidence in the literature that purely chemical or thermal means can affect the distribution of isotopes in such a way that a desired isotope can be enriched near the surface, or else buried away from the surface - especially with nano particulates. There is also anecdotal evidence that Rossi/Focardi did indeed obtain pure isotopes to experiment with, years ago. Therefore - in connecting all of the dots - it is a good bet that Rossi discovered the most active isotope, patented that finding and then found a way to chemically enrich nickel powder in a way that brings this isotope to the surface. Nevertheless - bulk nickel will also work most of the time, but not as reliably. All of this trouble - to get more surface exposure for the active isotope, could have been done in order to obtain "on demand" reliability... essentially by avoiding a depletion layer effect. There is a good chance that very high temperatures may also help to avoid a depletion layer as well - thus Rossi may have discovered that the HotCat may not need any special treatment of nickel, and this is why he essentially removed himself from the US operations and let Ampenergo manage things with the earlier design. Rossi may have chosen to concentrate on the HotCat exclusively, and in Europe. Jones
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