Bob,
How do you know that the tube was first coated with enriched 62Ni as you claim here below? The observers could notice the presence of Ni on the inside wall by just looking inside the eCat before the dummy run. Arnaud _____ For all we know, the inside of the reaction tube was first coated with an isotopically enriched 62Ni powder which was bonded or sintered to the inside wall. Then when the reactor was open, a few of the wall particles became dislodged and became part of the ash. These were not necessarily transmuted from the fuel, because I believe we only saw some consumable powder (probably the hydride) and maybe some obfuscation Ni powder. The point is that what was put in was not representative of the active fuel - it is a clue, but not statistically representative of the active portion of the fuel. Obviously this is an opinion. Given the high temperature, none of what Rossi originally put in would have come back out, except perhaps some small amount of the Ni that had collected in a colder spot in the reaction tube. What more likely came out were small pieces that had flaked off of the sides of the reactor tube due to thermal expansion mismatch as it was heated and cooled, that were in the tube before he put in the ~1g of consumables taken to be the fuel.
