I know of someone, a PhD physicist, who has told me that he may be willing to dip down into his personal savings to replicate this setup. However, I know his financial situation, and I wish the costs could be reduced while still being a true replication. So here is a thought.
If the community were to provide Mizuno with a smaller reactor vessel (perhaps one half the size or smaller) with all the appropriate ports for gas injection, vacuum, heating elements, and so forth, would he be willing to run a test with lets say only one sheet of palladium covered nickel mesh? My thinking here is that some parties may be able to rent or borrow vacuum pumps and other equipment, but getting such a large reactor vessel custom fabricated might be one of the largest expenses, except perhaps for the palladium rod. And if Mizuno starts offing palladium covered nickel mesh sheets, purchasing a rod might not be required.
Even if a smaller reactor with one sheet of nickel mesh might produce a smaller total quantity of excess heat, the cost barrier might be reduced. And as long as Mizuno actually performed such a test successfully, people who get such a smaller reactor core produced would still be performing a replication and not their own experiment.
I'm not sure how much such a smaller reactor vessel would cost or if/how it could be provided. But the biggest obstacle I see when it comes to cost is the reactor vessel, especially for someone who doesn't have a work shop to make their own.