Stephen A. Lawrence <[email protected]> wrote:
> Sounds to me like maybe they've just acquired the *building permits* to > renovate the building and set it up the way they want it. > Ed Storms had the same impression. I asked George Kouvakas what this original Greek phrase means: ". . . permits both as regards product safety and procedural requirements for setting up the plant." He confirmed that Google's translation is accurate. "Product safety" means the same as it does in English: the safety of the manufactured product. This does not refer to OSHA-type rules governing the safety of the building or equipment. That would be the second item: a permit covering the "procedural requirements for setting up the plant." That would be a building or renovation permit, or permits to cover the installation of equipment. In other words, the Greek press report does indicate that product-safety permits for the reactors has been granted. I don't want to make too much of this. The press report may be inaccurate, although I suppose the information came from Defkalion. A permit can always be withdrawn. Kouvakas has a low opinion of the Greek government. I suppose most Greek people do, given the financial mess the country is in. Actually building stuff and selling it to people is something else again, > and that may or may not require its own set of permits. > Perhaps it does, but this phrase refers to the "stuff" (the product). It is certified safe, according to this report. > It may be that all they need to do is set up in a region which is zoned > industrial and they're good to go (at least until somebody notices that > they're selling nuclear reactors, of course). > I wonder if their strategy is to hide the fact that it is nuclear? In the press reports, Defkalion home page, and Rossi's statements I do not see the words "nuclear" or "cold fusion." Could it be they hope that experts will not notice the thing produces thousands of megajoules per gram of material, or will fail to realize the significance of that?!? It will take about 0.5 seconds for most knowledgeable physicists or engineers to realize the significance of that fact. Anyone but an extreme anti-cold fusion skeptic would say, "Hey, that's gotta be a nuclear reactor!" (Even if it turns out to be a Mills shrinking-hydrogen reactor, experts today will conclude it is nuclear.) There was a dramatization of the Manhattan Project, I think it was "Day One," that portrayed an incident before the project got underway, among Oppenheimer's grad students. It might have been apocryphal but I am sure it could have happened. Oppenheimer and the students are sitting around in a restaurant, a pizza parlor or something like that near the campus. They are talking about the latest paper from Hahn and Meitner describing how unstable nuclei split. I wish I had a copy of the movie, but anyway, the dialog goes something like this: Grad A: "Don't be silly. Anyone can see this means. Any grad student could see it in an instant . . ." Grad student B walks in: "Hi guys! What's new?" Grad A: "A paper from Germany! Have a look. What do you think?" Grad B: "Sure! What's it say?" [Starts reading abstract in a low voice] " . . . neutron capture . . . vibrational energy . . . . . ." [Stops reading] "uh, that's a bomb." Grad A: "See? What did I tell you?! Anyone can tell that's what it means." I think everyone here will agree -- When it becomes widely known that Rossi devices are running at high power for months at a time, and they are not irradiating the surroundings and killing people (we hope!), I expect thousands of scientists and engineers will learn of that fact and immediately say to themselves "cold fusion is real after all!" This is not the sort of news you can hide. They will tell others, and within months, or weeks -- or even hours, now that we have the Internet -- millions of engineers and scientists will know. They will not only know, they will appreciate the technical and economic significance of the fact. All hell will break loose. As Rossi himself said, competition will commence on a scale that fighting will be like trying to "stop Niagara falls with an umbrella." So if their plan is to hide the fact that it is nuclear, and practice Security by Obscurity (as they say in the cryptography business), that plan will fail. Even the most hidebound opponents are beginning to take note of this. As proof, the Wikipedia cold fusion article mentions Rossi, and they have not deleted the link yet, last I checked. - Jed
