Hi Bob,
Yes, there are way too many loose ends in this story - not the least of which
is: where is that damaged reactor now? It is almost unconscionable to have
ignored it all these years.
If a nuclear reaction had happened, there should be residual radiation. Not to
mention - most top engineers would want to write this episode up, at some
point. And also - Gene Mallove was apparently going to get involved before his
tragic fate.
Like so many stories in LERN since '89 this is one more mystery which is full
of contrasting doubt and hope.
Bob Higgins wrote:
Thank you, Jones, for that historical highlight of the Thermacore experiment.
2.5 pounds of the Ni would have only amounted to 12% volumetric fill of the 3L
container volume.
When you say the stainless steel pressure vessel had a "hemispherical volume",
what do you mean? Do you mean the pressure vessel was spherical? Or was it
cylindrical with hemispherical top and bottom?
If the vessel was spherical, it would have an inside diameter of about 7" for
an internal volume of 3L. If we then presume that it was 300 pounds of
stainless steel, that is 1034 in^3 that would be in the shell of the container.
This would mean that the wall thickness of the container would have been 4.9"
- extremely thick. This is an unlikely sounding container. Was it really that
thick? For what purpose would such a container have ever been created?
Jones Beene wrote:
After all of these decades, the perception of LENR in the general physics
community is still rather 'unflattering,' shall we say. It is not even clear
what
the most convincing experiment (aka - the hero effort) is/was in the field -
since none has yet led to a commercial product.
Many new observers of the LENR scene are unaware of the details of the
Thermacore, Inc. runaway reaction in 1996. I ran across an old post on that
work recently and decided to re-post it since there is some similarity to
current
work - to wit the Clean Planet effort in Japan.
Unfortunately, the end result was not (publicly) replicated, but in fact became
the final effort (and exit). (BTW - Thermacore was a recognized leader in all
aspects of industrial thermochemistry, having inventedthe heat pipe. Had they
kept at it (1996)... who knows?
Sadly, the reason that they dropped LENR 25 years ago was far from 'no gain' -
instead, it was the risk of deadly explosion. The incident echoes other thermal
runaways, including P&F, Mizuno, Mark Snoswell in Australia and Brian Ahern.
However, Thermacore's was more energetic than prior incidents and could have
led to high profile fatalities.
This was to have been a powered experiment, but they never had time to apply
input power. It 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 with hydrogen at
modest pressure. Instead, it was likely to have been the most energetic single
event in the history of LENR.
Years later, Brian Ahern was in contact with Nelson Gernert, the chief
researcher in the new Thermacore, Inc (having gone through two changes of
ownership) ... and who was also in charge of the runaway. Brian is absolutely
convinced that this happened as described.
Details: 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. It would have been an
approximation of a small industrial boiler had things not gone berserk that day.
Thermacore evacuated the nickel under vacuum for several days before adding
H2 gas at 2 atmospheres. The most amazing thing happened next. The powder
immediately and spontaneously heated up before external power could even
be added. The Dewar glowed orange (800C) and the engineers ran for cover.
No external heat had been used and radiation monitors were not 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.
Superficial thermal analysis - 3 liters of H2 gas at 2 atmosphere will have a
heat
of combustion of 74 kilojoules if combined with oxygen (but there was no oxygen
in the Dewar). Heating a 300 lb Stainless vessel to 800C would require 21
megajoules. That is ostensibly ~289 times the possible chemical energy but can
it be controlled?
Maybe Clean Planet has learned how to control this phenomenon and can
produce a small boiler. Mitsubishi is a major investor, it is said.
Tesla beware.
https://www.cleanplanet.co.jp/en/company/
