Quote from H-G Branzell

The heart of the Genie reactor concept is a LENR based neutron generator.

Nope, this is a fission fusion hybrid. Fission produces most of the needed neutrons.

Quote from H-G Branzell

This means that a Genie reactor will need an ENORMOUS neutron source. If GEC had such a source

.

It has been said that Cf252 is the most expensive element on earth.

The GEC neutron source, if it exists of course, would have a great commercial value, so the first thing to do would be to patent the source and nothing else.

Coal, Oil, Natural Gas (carbon energy) The most traded commodity on earth... in this light.

Energy has, what you call, "great commercial value" not neutrons and certainly not Cf252.

Logically, you are way off base and taking this thread off topic:

1) "the first thing to do would not be to try to sell a complete power station"

2) "so the first thing to do would be to patent the (neutron) source and nothing else"

I expect this and respect your opinion... but.

Perhaps it's best to see, a basic hybrid concept.

WHAT IS HYBRID FUSION

ISOFS SUBCOMMITTEE

Quote:

The good news is that the first round of challenges are clearly defined, and motivations for meeting them are strong, as fusion fuels offer the irresistible combination of abundant supply with minimum environmental consequences.

The (gbgoblenote - initial fusion, or consider the alternate, an LENR) reaction acts as a source of neutrons for the surrounding blanket, where these neutrons are captured, resulting in fission reactions taking place.

These fission reactions would also produce more neutrons, thereby assisting further fission reactions in the blanket.

The concept of hybrid fusion can be compared with an accelerator-driven system.

Where an accelerator is the source of neutrons for the blanket assembly, rather than nuclear fusion reactions.

The blanket of a hybrid fusion system can therefore contain the same fuel as an ADS for example, the abundant element thorium or the long-lived heavy isotopes present in used nuclear fuel from a conventional reactor could be used as fuel.

The blanket containing fission fuel in a hybrid fusion system would not require the development of new materials capable of withstanding constant neutron bombardment, whereas such materials would be needed in the blanket of a conventional fusion system.

@H-G Branzell A further advantage of a hybrid system is that the fusion part would not need to produce as many neutrons as a non-hybrid fusion reactor would in order to generate more power than is consumed so a commercial-scale fusion reactor in a hybrid system does not need to be as large as a fusion-only reactor.

Quote from H-G Branzell

Con

• We were unable to visit the prototype installation in Austin. Texas, as the permitting requirement for visitors would take a long time. As a result, we did not get to ask many more engineering type questions concerning the scale up process.

• A working up-to-scale reactor producing electricity has not been built yet.

You should note the following... maybe not maryyugo.

• Research helps, perhaps the "prototype installation in Austin, Texas" requires DoD clearance. It seems to me the prototype is at ARL; as the reason why "the permitting requirement for visitors would take a long time". That's a plus, not a minus, in the GEC confidence equation.
• A working up-to-scale reactor might not be hooked up to an electrical generator.

ARL UT Austin, Texas https://wwwext.arlut.utexas.edu/about.html

Applied Research Laboratories, the University of Texas at Austin (ARL:UT), is a Department of Defense University-Affiliated Research Center (UARC). Since 1945, ARL:UT has been engaged in sponsored research dedicated to improving our national security through applications of acoustics, electromagnetics, and information sciences.

As a UARC, ARL:UT has a special contractual relationship with the U. S. Department of Defense (DoD). The UARC relationship was created to enable DoD to foster and utilize certain core competencies at university labs like ARL:UT. To foster the relationship, UARCs are allowed to contract with DoD on a sole source basis under a specific exemption in the Competition in Contracting Act. Part of DoD's objective in UARC contracting is to enable technical experts to advise the government on technology issues that fall within their competency areas. Often this involves advising them on acquisition strategies and evaluating industry proposals. Clearly, to do that effectively, ARL:UT must remain totally free of any real or perceived conflict of interest. Consequently, the UARC charter under which ARL:UT operates, established by DDR&E, precludes ARL:UT's teaming with industry or accepting industry subcontracts for work that lies within ARL:UT's core competency areas. The charter does allow for exceptions that are deemed to be in the government's best interests and approved by ARL:UT's NAVSEA (Naval Sea Systems Command) oversight office. It should be emphasized that this restriction is primarily focused on ARL:UT's business relationships with industry, and does not preclude collaboration and technology transfer that falls within the scope of our sponsored projects, and is directed by the government sponsor funding our effort. Funding for these activities is provided by our government sponsor, rather than as a subcontract from industry.

Also

DOD Awards $1.1 Billion Contract to UT Austin’s Applied Research Laboratories Sept. 28, 2017 https://news.utexas.edu/2017/0…ied-research-laboratories

AUSTIN, Texas — The U.S. Navy has awarded Applied Research Laboratories at The University of Texas at Austin (ARL:UT) the largest research contract in the university’s history — worth as much as $1.1 billion over 10 years — to conduct research and development to improve U.S national security.

ARL:UT is one of five Department of Defense (DOD) University Affiliated Research Centers, laboratories that have long-term strategic relationships with the DOD and are considered trusted agents. These affiliated research centers provide essential research capabilities, develop new technology for national security applications and provide technical advice to DOD program managers.

“The research performed and advancements made at The University of Texas at Austin are unparalleled,” said Gov. Greg Abbott. “I am proud of the work that is already underway at Applied Research Laboratories at UT, and I am looking forward to their continued contributions to our national security. I’d like to thank the Department of Defense for their investment in UT, its students, faculty and all those involved in this growing partnership.”

“Under this new agreement, UT scientists and engineers will expand their vital role developing research that advances science and promotes national security,” said President Gregory L. Fenves. “This contract demonstrates the massive impact UT research has on the world through the breadth and depth of our programs in engineering, technology, high-performance computing and applied science.”

Quote from Shane D.

Never heard of such a large amount as $1.1 billion given to one department, at one university. As they say, it is the largest in the University of Texas's history.

Yes, also rather large for a university DoD lab.

Applied research and engineering is their specialty... a bit more digging is needed.

While initiating a search, in order to learn some background history, of University of Texas and ARL involvement in the Manhattan Project and subsequent nuclear weapon programs I found the following fresh news.

A bit off topic yet perhaps relevant. Watch and see how this bid turns out.

(please note: demonstrated business acumen and experience in change management)

Statement regarding The University of Texas System bid on the Management and Operations Contract for Los Alamos National Laboratory - THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2017 - https://www.utsystem.edu/news/…t-and-operations-contract

In response to numerous inquiries, The University of Texas System confirms that it has submitted a response to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s request for proposals to manage and operate Los Alamos National Laboratory.

We believe The University of Texas System with its 14 institutions brings extraordinary qualifications: more than 130 years of unmatched scientific accomplishment, a record of responsible and responsive leadership, demonstrated business acumen and experience in change management, and a long-established commitment to national service.

Los Alamos is a preeminent national laboratory in the areas of nuclear weapons, nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards and security, environmental management, energy and other programs—one among the U.S. Department of Energy’s 17 national laboratories. The Lab operates under the auspices of the NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy. It holds a storied place in the history of our nation and carries primary responsibility for the urgent task of effectively managing the nuclear weapons component stockpile, as well as the advancement of knowledge and discovery that can aid nuclear nonproliferation and deterrence, environmental management, and energy research.

If UT System wins the honor of serving, we believe that the system’s renowned centers of academic excellence and our long legacy of service to our nation will serve the Lab and its community well. We will work to be a trusted steward and a richly productive partner to the Lab’s dedicated world-class workforce, the New Mexico economic and community landscape, and to the wider scientific communities these entities serve.

About The University of Texas System

Educating students, providing care for patients, conducting groundbreaking basic, applied and clinical research, and serving the needs of Texans and the nation for more than 130 years, The University of Texas System is one of the largest public university systems in the United States. With 14 institutions and a projected enrollment of more than 234,000 students, the UT System confers more than one-third of the state’s undergraduate degrees, educates approximately two-thirds of the state’s health care professionals annually and accounts for almost 70 percent of all research funds awarded to public institutions in Texas. The UT System’s operating budget for FY 2018 is $18.3 billion, funded in part by $3.6 billion in sponsored programs from federal, state, local and private sources. With more than 20,000 faculty – including Nobel laureates and many members of the National Academies – and nearly 80,000 health care professionals, researchers, student advisors and support staff, the UT System is one of the largest employers in the state.

News Contact Info

Karen Adler: [email protected]  • 512-499-4360 (direct) • 210-912-8055 (cell)

Melanie Thompson: [email protected] • 512-499-4487 (direct) • 832-724-1024 (cell)

Eric Walker - Thanks, Now I have a lot of studying to do... love how little I know.

Quote from Eric Walker

Consider this 1987 patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US5076971.

Study of Altran Corporation patent history shows, "Method for enhancing alpha decay in radioactive materials" Grant US5076971A - William A. Barker - Altran Corporation Priority 1987-10-23 • Filing 1989-08-28 • Grant 1991-12-31

Subsequently, I considered another one, his 1990 patent granted.

Thanks again.

Electrostatic voltage excitation process and apparatus US4961880A

https://patents.google.com/patent/US4961880A

@H-G Branzell Denigrate

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/denigrate

If you "denigrate" someone, you attempt to blacken their reputation. It makes sense, therefore, that "denigrate" can be traced back to the Latin verb denigrare, meaning "to blacken." When "denigrate" was first used in English in the 16th century, it meant to cast aspersions on someone's character or reputation.

It's just not worth it... I really don't know enough about most people.

A get together with Lawrence Forsley - University of Texas Austin, Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory, Research Associate and Chief Scientist at GEC is in order.

Knowledgable preparation requires reading a partial compilation of his published works found at: https://utexas.academia.edu/LawrenceForsley

'Casting Aspersions in Texas'

Hmmmm... A catchy tee-shirt.

Dumb to wear in Texas.

Unless spot on.

An aspersion is a disparaging remark. It almost invariably appears as a plural, following the word "cast" — when you cast aspersions on someone, you are questioning their abilities or doubting them.

On a Tree Fallen Across the Road

(To hear us talk) By Robert Frost

The tree the tempest with a crash of wood

Throws down in front of us is not to bar

Our passage to our journey's end for good,

But just to ask us who we think we are

Insisting always on our own way so.

She likes to halt us in our runner tracks,

And make us get down in a foot of snow

Debating what to do without an ax.

And yet she knows obstruction is in vain:

We will not be put off the final goal

We have it hidden in us to attain,

Not though we have to seize earth by the pole

And, tired of aimless circling in one place,

Steer straight off after something into space.

Astrophysics seeks to understand 'electron screening' and coulomb barrier 'tunneling', questing "after something into space" seeking understanding as to how elements come to be. The following branch of science is part of this quest. It is not LENR, rather it is the "Low Energy Nuclear Reaction" variety of High Energy Nuclear Physics and lends insight into understanding LENR. Inversely and as importantly, understanding of LENR will lend insight to this quest of astrophysicists.

H-G Branzell These are automatically sent by U.S. Science dot Gov, one can subscribe at:

Also

"Effect of broken axial symmetry on the electric dipole strength and the collective enhancement of level densities in heavy nuclei"

Grosse, E.; Junghans, A. R.; Wilson, J. N.

2017-11-01 NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DOI: 10.1088/1402-4896/aa8607 Volume: 92 Issue: 11 Pages: 114003

Publication: Physica Scripta, Volume 92, Issue 11, article id. 114003 (2017)

Abstract

The basic parameters for calculations of radiative neutron capture, photon strength functions and nuclear level densities near the neutron separation energy are determined based on experimental data without an ad hoc assumption about axial symmetry—at variance to previous analysis. Surprisingly few global fit parameters are needed in addition to information on nuclear deformation, taken from Hartree Fock Bogolyubov calculations with the Gogny force, and the generator coordinator method assures properly defined angular momentum. For a large number of nuclei the GDR shapes and the photon strength are described by the sum of three Lorentzians, extrapolated to low energies and normalised in accordance to the dipole sum rule. Level densities are influenced strongly by the significant collective enhancement based on the breaking of shape symmetry. The replacement of axial symmetry by the less stringent requirement of invariance against rotation by 180° leads to a novel prediction for radiative neutron capture. It compares well to recent compilations of average radiative widths and Maxwellian average cross sections for neutron capture by even target nuclei. An extension to higher spin promises a reliable prediction for various compound nuclear reactions also outside the valley of stability.

@H-G Branzell Such predictions are of high importance for future nuclear energy systems and waste transmutation as well as for the understanding of the cosmic synthesis of heavy elements. - end abstract

Quote from Eric Walker

Given your confidence, H-G, presumably you have read a pile of empirical studies that show that impregnating spent nuclear fuel with deuterium does not appear to induce fission, which would be suitable to dispel any false hopes raised by any internal research this group may have done to conclude that it does induce fission?

I can think of at least one way that impregnating deuterium in spent fissile material might induce fission a small amount: the electron brought with the interstitial deuterium atoms could result in a new equilibrium in the electronic structure of the heavy atoms adequate to compromise the coulomb barrier surrounding the heavy nuclei just enough to push the fission rate up a small but measurable amount. Consider the central role of the coulomb barrier in the Gamow theory of alpha decay. Consider the fact that alpha decay occurs differentially at the poles and at the waist of oblong deformed heavy nuclei, showing how sensitive the decay rate is to a change in the width of the coulomb barrier.

I can think of another way as well: impregnating deuterium will perhaps have been achieved using an electric current. Consider this 1987 patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US5076971.

Dufour, J., et al., Experimental observation of nuclear reactions in palladium and

uranium -- possible explanation by hydrex mode. Fusion Technol., 2001. 40: p. 91

Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, Laboratoire des Sciences Nucléaires

2 rue Conté, 75003 Paris, France

Received December 21, 2000

Accepted for Publication January 25, 2001

Abstract

Experiments with uranium are presented that show a highly exothermal reaction,
which can only be of nuclear origin. One striking point of these results is that they clearly
show that what is being observed is not some kind of fusion reaction of the deuterium
present (only exceedingly small amounts of it are present). This is a strong indication
that hydrogen can trigger nuclear reactions that seem to involve the nuclei of the lattice
(which would yield a fission-like pattern of products). Confronted with a situation where
some experiments in the field yield a fusion-like pattern of products (CF experiments)
and others a fissionlike one (LENR experiments), one can reasonably wonder whether
one is not observing two aspects of the same phenomenon. Thus, it is proposed to
describe CF and LENR reactions as essentially the same phenomenon based on the
possible existence of a still hypothetical proton/electron resonance, which would catalyze
fission like reactions with a neutron sink. Finally, a series of experiments is proposed to
assess this hypothesis. http://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/DufourJexperiment.pdf

Eric Walker This is from 2007, I'm looking for recent works from each author... "Synthesis Of A Copper Like Compound From Nickel And Hydrogen And Of A Chromium Like Compound From Calcium And Deuterium"

https://www.researchgate.net/p…rom_Calcium_And_Deuterium

A side note: The review 'United States Government LENR 2018 has been viewed three times by the folks at Brillouin and viewed by someone at Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP in San Francisco.

Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP offers legal advisory services. The firm’s areas of practice include patent, trademark and copyright, litigation, antitrust, biotechnology and chemistry, medical and mechanical devices, technology licensing, trade secrets, and Internet and domain names. It caters to aerospace, agriculture, chemical, energy, hardware, manufacturing, Internet and e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, telecommunications, publishing, and food manufacturing industries. The firm was founded in 1993 due to a merger between Townsend and Townsend and Khourie, Crew and Jaeger. Townsend is headquartered in San Francisco, California with additional offices in Palo Alto, Walnut Creek...

These folks from Ukraine cite the 2007 paper of J. Dufour They sent this to Dr. Rossi.

.

Ing. Michelangelo De Meo

July 1, 2016 at 8:55 AM

Hello dr . Rossi , I send you a very interesting paper:

On the Nuclear Coupling of Proton and Electron
Volodymyr Krasnoholovets Institute of physics, Natl. Acad. Sci., 46 Nauky St., UA-03028 Kyiv, Ukraine
Yuriy Zabulonov, Ihor Zolkin
Institute of Environmental Geochemistry under Natl. Acad. Sci. and Ministry for Emergencies and Affairs of Population Protection from
the Consequences of Chornobyl Catastrophe, 34-a Acad. Palladin Ave., UA-03680, Kyiv, Ukraine
http://www.hrpub.org/download/20160530/UJPA6-18406680.pdf

axil Hi,

Thanks for joining the thread, I hope you're doing fine.

I'm curious, What is your opinion of the claims of GEC?

The claims are: "GEC is currently negotiating several new SMG construction contracts ranging from 250MWe to 5GWe around the world." Are these claims truthful, or most likely truthful, or a scam?

Quote from Shane D.

One of their lawyers (Sloan I believe) was also a physicist. BEC came on some financial troubles, and Sloan, very impressed with their technology, worked out a deal whereby Townsend received a share of the new corporation, in exchange for legal bills.

Good memory Shane... Led me to this from SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 • ISSUE 123 • INFINITE ENERGY

http://www.infinite-energy.com…s/pdfs/BrillouinIE123.pdf

On the Quest for a Commercial LENR Reactor with Robert Godes and Brillouin Energy

by Marianne Macy

quote page 10

So how did the work progress? “Because I figured out the physics in 1992, and then started developing the components of the hardware and system design in 1996, I was able to build the first functional prototype LENR test system in 2002. With the acquisition of Energy Line looming (and my freedom to experiment in their lab soon to be curtailed), I quit my day job and began running experiments out of my house, using my daughter’s original nursery room as homespun lab space. After a couple years of such work, I later approached a highly regarded Intellectual Property (IP) law firm in the San Francisco Bay area now called Kilpatrick Townsend Stockton (KTS). Specifically KTS (then Townsend & Townsend & Crew) had a highly respected IP lawyer on its staff named David Slone, who has both his JD Law and his Ph.D. in high-energy physics from Stanford University. A known authority in his field, I began a dialog with Dr. Slone about my hypothesis that I had developed as the theoretical basis to produce LENR, and after much review, technical analysis and scrutiny, eventually convinced him and a couple of his fellow physics and engineering colleagues that my hypothesis could in fact eventually lead to a commercial breakthrough. The process wasn’t easy, but after many months of review and dialog, Slone was actually persuaded that what later became the Brillouin Energy hypothesis was significant enough, that he got his law firm to agree to perform all of my early patent work on my behalf and to become my IP law firm in exchange for a then 5% equity stake in the founders stock of my venture in 2005.” - end quotes