My (Daniel's comment) I cannot subscribe to all that is being written, specially the reliability issue at the end. But as far as I can see, this is a rational attitude that most of this forum hasn't displayed.
**************** I've been privately discussing the report, made by Yeong Kim at ICCF-18, that Defkalion has been seeing what appear to be anomalous electromagnetic effects; Kim reported, in his presentation, a measurement at 20 cm of 0.6 Tesla, during or at the onset of plasma stimulation, increasing to 1.6 Tesla in the heat phase (after stimulation?). The report at the Conference was totally sketchy, little more than I just stated -- or less. Bob Higgens reported on vortex-l that he'd asked Kim about this, and Kim had indicated that the kind of meter had been used that is used to measure the field strength of permanent magnets. I.e., a gaussmeter, there are many such. Much has been made of this report as being ridiculous. If a 1.6 Tesla DC magnetic field had been reported at 20 cm., this is far, far outside of what would be considered plausible. It would have dramatic consequences, and it could be dangerous. For example, one would not want to allow anyone with a cardiac pacemaker near the thing when it was operating. No base reading, i.e., with no operation, was given. At first, I suspected that Gauss had been erroneously reported as Tesla, so I asked about this, and there was response, semi-privately, from Defkalion. That the figure was in Tesla was confirmed, though confirming details are still missing, such as the model and type of meter used, and how it was used, except that it has been disclosed that this was a "peak" reading. Some meters will show peak. They may vary in bandpass and response. Even as "peak," this remains a remarkable report. Peak 1.6 T is not the same animal as DC 1.6 T. It would take much more analysis, with more needed detail, to consider the plausibility of this report. In the end, experiment is King. We do not deny reports because they seem implausible. We *question* them. Additional information was provided, that Defkalion had seen disruption of electronic equipment by the device, such as their phone system being shut down; the measurements reported were with all shielding removed; normally, they operate the Hyperion with mu-metal and other shielding, to cut down on EMF interference. It is not surprising that there could be massive noise, they are stimulating the reaction through a high voltage applied to those spark plugs used as convenient feed-thrus at either end of the device. Classic spark RF signal. Wide-band, mostly illegal nowadays, because of how much disruption it can create. Devices that can generate this kind of noise must be shielded, or they will be located and shut down. So ... have others seen RF anomalies like this? My opinion at this point is that a connection with the reaction has not been demonstrated; rather, the reported correlation, with the meager details we have, is with *stimulation*. It is quite possible that the plasma causes heavy magnetic alignment of the nickel nanoparticles in the reaction; it is reported that the noise is found above a certain critical temperature, which would be consistent with that. I.e., above some temperature, nickel could be much more magnetizable. And this, then, may be related to how the Hyperion works. That's what Kim is interested in and is talking about. We also have, particularly because of some astute analysis by a prominent member of the MFMP team, a better idea of what is inside the Hyperion, and probably the eCat as well. Defkalion has been quite open about this, in fact: nickel foam, loaded with nanoparticles, probably originally pure nickel, but, more lately, complex structures. Nickel foam makes perfect sense. It's a regular commercial product, easily obtainable. The foam would rapidly conduct heat away from reacting nanoparticles, suppressing the sintering that has plagued gas-loaded LENR researchers. It would provide reading access to the particles by the gas, and access by the plasma from Defkalion's stimulation. Periodic plasma bursts may keep the reactant clean and operating.... Exciting times. We will not know for sure about Defkalion (and the same for Rossi) until there are fully independent tests. But, setting aside worries about fraud, Defkalion, in particular, is looking quite good. Most of the heavily skeptical comment I've seen on the July Defkalion demos has been misinformed. I.e., for example, it was speculated that the flow meter was over-reporting flow because of steam in the pipe. But the flow meter is *before* the reactor cooling coils, steam there is extremely unlikely. The water is low temperature at that point. In addition, the Defkalion displays showed coolant water at 160 degrees C, which is, of course, preposterous at the low pressures involved. But this is quite straightforward. Defkalions displays were set up to assume unboiled water, neglecting the massive heat of vaporization of water. An alternate calculation assuming full vaporization -- which does seem to have occurred, from Lewan's report -- shows more heat, not less. My own "negative" comment is that the demonstration doesn't show reliability, and could even show, speculatively, the opposite. If they could reliably predict the outcome of the demonstration, why did they set up "success" as being only a COP of 1.1? Why would they set up calorimetry depending on unboiled water? Why not just operate the thing for a time with *controlled heat* to *almost boil* the water. *Then crank it up and boil the water.* Until there is reliability, there is no commercial product, other than the possibility of selling unrelable units for *investigation.* That could easily be done. If some purchaser were unlucky enough to get only duds, they'd simply guarantee replacement until the thing worked. But if Defkalion does not want their level of unreliability to be known, they will avoid independent tests and such investigational sales. And that's their choice. It does not indicate anything bad about them, just not what we want to see. What we want is not the standard by which all behavior is judged.... About scientific cooperation, Defkalion is making good noises. Let's hope these noises are followed up by bold and courageous action.
