On vortex brian ahern announced his efforts to replicate Thermacore 1996 experiment,
It is cited in another thread here (on Darden's interview in the Triangle Business Journal).
I am close to completing a repetition of the 1996 Thermacore runaway reaction. This seems like an obvious application of chemical engineering and the experiment is straightforward.
That result may solve a great many riddles in LENR. If it is successful, I expect Andrea Rossi and separately Randall Mills will claim full credit for an obvious result of their actions.
There was an article in ECW based on vortex discussions
http://www.e-catworld.com/2016…ent-jones-beene-vortex-l/
https://www.mail-archive.com/v…eskimo.com/msg110068.html
Display MoreMost observers of the LENR/nickel hydride scene are unaware of the details
of the Thermacore, Inc. runaway reaction back in 1996.
Unfortunately, this was the last effort that this company made in the field,
and the main reason that they dropped LENR. The incident echoes other
thermal runaways, including P&F, Mizuno, Mark Snoswell in Australia and
Ahern. However, it was far more energetic than any of the prior incidents.
This was to have been an powered experiment but they never had time to apply
input power. This was was a follow-on to a Phase one grant from USAF
(document in LENR-CANR library) and was simply intended to be an analysis
the absorption reaction of a large amount of nickel powder and hydrogen at
modest pressure. Instead, it was likely the most energetic single event in
the history of LENR.
Recently, Brian Ahern has been in contact with Nelson Gernert, the chief
researcher in the new Thermacore (having gone through two changes of
ownership) who was also in charge of the runaway. None of this has appeared
in print before.
Gernert added 2.5 pounds of nickel powder (200 mesh of Ni-200) into a 3
liter stainless steel Dewar. The Dewar weighed 300 pounds. It was a strong
pressure vessel with a hemispherical volume. Thermacore evacuated the nickel
under vacuum for several days before adding H2 gas at 2 atmospheres
(apparently there was no potassium but this detail needs to be verified).
The most amazing thing happened next. The powder immediately and
spontaneously heated before external power could be added. The Dewar glowed
orange (800C) and the engineers ran for cover. No external heat had been
used and no radiation monitors were running. The nickel had sintered into a
glob alloyed into the vessel and could not be removed.
The (then) owner of Thermacore, Yale Eastman was frightened that an
explosion was imminent and that someone could be killed. He forbade any
further work on LENR. The incident was not published.
The Dewar was no longer safe as a pressure vessel and they junked it. They
did not measure it for radiation. Superficial thermal analysis - 3 liters of
H2 gas at 2 atmosphere will have a heat of combustion of 74 kilojoules when
combined with oxygen (but there was no oxygen in the Dewar).
Heating a 300 lb Stainless vessel to 800C requires 21 megajoules. That is
ostensibly 289 times the possible chemical energy!
Whatever you think of Rossi or Mills, replicating NiH experiment and proving definitively LENR happens with Ni and 1H, is a great news for humanity.