Who are the kooks in fusion?

[Dan Tibbets]

The Rossi scam is unchanged in my openion. The recent test supposedly produced `2 KW out for 1 KW in. The system seems to have been set up to maximize the opacity of measurement methods. Just like when steam production was supposed to be a positive indicator that was so uncertain due to many possible variables. That could have been quickly and definitively resolved by setting up the experiment so that the calorimetry did not involve a phase shift of water (steam), but only a warming of liquid water. That this was not done speaks volumes. As for the Ni62, that was provided by Rossi from an envelope, not extracted from the machine by the researchers. That the claimed reaction involves conversion of Ni58 and possibly several other Ni isotopes to Ni62 and the supplied "post test sample" was almost pure Ni62 is problematic because the reaction rate was reported as constant, and its been reported that it should have slowed as the Ni58 was consumed. What ever the other cold fusion efforts yield, I am confident that Rossi's machine is pure fraud, and poorly disguised fraud at that.

My attitude towards Tokamaks has changed over the years. JET and others have come close enough to Q=1 that it seems they will eventually get there, perhaps with ITER in 30 more years, or even a revamped JET in 5-6 years. The Tokamak, while a possible scientific success, is an economic disaster. Even if it works as expected the cost of the electricity produced will be many times greater than fossil, fission, solar, wind, etc.

Meanwhile the Polywell, Lockheed's Skunkwork;s approach, several FRC approaches, DPF, General Fusion's approach continue to advance without any show stoppers. All have valid physics, especially as high Beta operation has now been demonstrated convincingly. That does not mean they will work, but at least they have withstood the attempts by some to discredit them as bad science .

Dan Tibbets