It is fairly well understood that it is difficult to measure the ash associated with an LENR system. There does not seem to be any dangerous particle or radiation emission to detect outside of the device while heat from the fusion processes appears to be the main observation to date.
With these factors to consider perhaps the answer has remained hidden in the background. The mainstream physicists might have gotten it half right instead of being totally in error. Their mistake might well be in determining the reaction rate that occurs within the metal lattice. Their models are based upon effects that have been documented in plasma reactions and they do not appear to have any comparable ones measured within metals. Suppose the fusion reaction rates are indeed quite small within nickel but still many orders of magnitude greater than the extrapolated values. Furthermore, these rates might depend upon temperature in an exponential manner. The consequences of such a system could easily be that no one could verify that fusion was taking place under normal conditions. Just as we expect, little or no radiation is released and the amount of heat generated by the reaction rate under typical conditions is too small to prove to exist. This set of conditions leaves us where we normally find ourselves, low output heating and plenty of skeptical physicists who doubt our ability to measure heat accurately. Now, what if a system that works well, such as Rossi's ECAT goes a step further in its operation. The basic reaction rate for his device might match that determined by the relative number of NAE sites just as all the others that fail to perform up to our expectations. If this were the only trick up his sleeve then he would be searching desperately for heat and hence proof of useful power levels. Instead, the underlying fusion reaction rate might be multiplied by a positive feedback coupling between the NAE sites so that he gets thousands of times more energy than expected due to temperature alone. For this to work, the density of the NAE within an active region must exceed some minimum value. This is not unlike the critical mass required to initiate a chain reaction within a reactor. You play with a plasma or catalyst material which ultimately causes the density of the NAE to rise until the positive feedback takes over. Once the reaction begins within an active region, it continues until the local fuel is exhausted. If enough fuel is present, you may find a crater formed as is seen in some situations. The most likely effect seen would be a release of a burst of heat that far exceeds what would occur without the local feedback. The triggering events, which in this case are the incidental fusion reactions due to temperature or other stimuli, occur often enough to start a local chain reaction that consumes the available fuel which ceases before a super large scale reaction occurs. Hot spots would tend to be generated in a system such as I am describing and the heat released throughout the material should smooth out with time due to standard diffusion. I would assume that it would take some relaxation time for a region that has been depleted of fuel from a reaction to recover. This situation would suggest that there must be many billions of regions that contribute to the net heating. Each of these would require time to recharge their fuel until it is capable of additional ignition. If true, then a type of self regulation would appear which limits the amount of power that can be extracted from the active material. It might be possible to engineer this effect to achieve some degree of system stability. Crystal defects might actually turn out to be our friend in this particular situation. How could we find a better technique that contains the concentration of NAE within a region? I suspect that it will be important to isolate the active regions from each other to an extent. The reason being that it would be advantageous for each active region to undergo a chain reaction of the type I am suggesting without spilling over too broadly into the adjacent active regions. Adjustment of the particle sizes would contribute to the control of the active regions as well. If phonons perform the coupling then the energy would be better contained within the individual particles. Coupling between the NAE might likely be in the form of phonons. The energy would drop off rapidly with distance and they of course would not represent dangerous radiation, which is not seen. The actual individual nuclear reactions is not addressed in this post. Instead, I have been considering a system level behavioral model. There are several theories on the plate which give consideration to the release of energy per NAE reaction. Dave
