If zirconium (as zirconia) should turn-up as Rossi's secret catalyst - which to be honest is doubtful except for knowing how the Arata/Kitamura/Takahashi etc result may depend on Zr . but if it does turn up in the E-Cat, the following could be relevant in leading to a working theory based on expanding Haisch/Moddel and Casimir heating.
Naturally occurring zirconium is composed of four stable isotopes and one very long-lived radioisotope of atomic weight 96 (96Zr), which is almost 3% of natural. Most unusual to appear is such a percentage and having the long half-life but at the same time being radioactive (ultimately) and in a metal that is not an exotic. Moreover, this exact combination of properties makes this isotope of zirconium a prime candidate for a new version of ZPE merged with QM/QED theory. The concept incorporates accelerated nuclear decay as the route that nature has chosen to "balance the books" of local energy depletion. That requires a radioisotope and accelerated decay. Presumably, the longer the half life, the more likely it will decay cleanly. Thorium is also in this category. In fact, if you specify that there must be at least 2% of the candidate isotope in the natural ore, these two plus U are the only good candidates that I can find in nature (based on high tonnage resources). The key distinction between this version of ZPE theory and others is that it is also inherently a nuclear process, and dependent on the weak force in a nearly net neutral way, but decayed until energy is already depleted locally, which alters the probability field. In operation of a reactor, excess energy can arrive immediately in the form of heat from the zero point field (via Casimir/Lamb-shift manipulation); but that kind of excess-energy is immediately self-limiting if there is not a radioactive isotope nearby - in the local area, which can decay at an accelerated rate in order to supply the energy deficit from the ZPE interactions. This is QM time reversal. ZPE is the proximate cause of gain, nuclear decay is the ultimate cause of gain. The features of this version of ZPE may mesh with actual experiment in a way that no other theory can accommodate - to wit: 1) High energy density approaching 100,000 times more than chemical by mole 2) Low, but non-zero radiation during operation 3) Low, but non-zero radiation in the ash on shut down 4) Molybdenum is the main transmutation product and is as valuable as Zr FALSIFIABILITY - This is most important: 96Zr can be obtained as an enriched alloy since it is separated from the common alloy used as cladding in fission reactors. It should show significantly better gain than natural zirconia when used as the support dielectric in gas phase LENR. 96Zr as best I can tell, would supply a net energy of ~4 MeV going to Mo; and if 2% of natural zirconium was the average of what could be easily "burned" using natural ore, to provide the makeup ZPE energy, then that averages to roughly 80 keV per atom it would seem. This is all tentative and the most redeeming feature is the (arguable) "fit" to the Rossi experiment (assuming the Cu seen is from electromigration). Jones
