Hydrogen molecules are shown to be slightly diamagnetic no matter which alignment they are in. Since protons are fermions, the anti-symmetry of the wavefunction imposes restrictions on the rotational states - with the result that the molecule is always diamagnetic.
Consequently, ortho/para alignment would be irrelevant or counter-productive to a fusion process with a heavy metal like nickel, since it implies three body. Three-body processes are extremely rare, even in plasmas, and H2 as a molecule would not be involved as a reactant in LENR, unless one is talking about Storms’ reaction of two protons fusing to deuterium, for which there is no physical evidence. If this reaction was happening, tritium would be expected, since its formation has a much higher cross-section than two protons. As a monatomic species, there would be no relic of the prior spin alignment of hydrogen, in fusion with nickel. However, some or most of the energy of LENR could be non-fusion related. In that case, ortho/para cycling could be relevant From: Axil Axil Molecular hydrogen occurs in two isomeric forms, one with its two proton spins aligned parallel (orthohydrogen), the other with its two proton spins aligned antiparallel (parahydrogen). At room temperature and thermal equilibrium, hydrogen consists of approximately 75% orthohydrogen and 25% . Orthohydrogen hydrogen has non zero spin, this is bad for Ni/H LENR because the non zero spin wastes magnetic energy by producing RF radiation. Parahydrogen hydrogen has zero spin. This is good for Ni/H LENR because this type of hydrogen is magnetically inactive. This is a way to increase parahydrogen hydrogen by using a noble metal catalyst. see Catalytic process for ortho-para hydrogen conversion http://www.google.com/patents/US3383176 Could this metallic ruthenium and certain ruthenium alloys be Rossi's secret sauce?
