Dear Hanks,
I have a theory. As you may know from the principles of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, atoms with odd number of protons, like Hydrogen, can be put in resonance with RF pulses. The resonance frequency is about 43 MHz for each Tesla of magnetic field. So the atoms must be put in a static magnetic field, and as you may know, nickel is ferromagnetic, so it can remain magnetized. I suggest you (and any interested replicator) to have a DC current in the coil and then a pulsed square wave in another coil or added to the DC in the same coil, to have a static magnetic field and an RF pulse, to see if hydrogen atoms, put in resonance, with the spin flipped by the RF pulse and finally left to spin and return to rest state (see any MRI principles manual for details of the process) see any speed-up in the reactions.
Best regards,
Marco.