There’s been some interesting discussion on the Journal of Nuclear Physics between Steven Karels and Andrea Rossi about the theoretical limits of the size of an E-Cat. There was a misunderstanding earlier this week in which Rossi seemed to say that was no limitation to the size of an individual E-Cat reactor; today he corrected himself, explaining that he meant there was no theoretical limit to the size of an E-Cat plant, but apparently you can only make an E-Cat reactor so large.
In that context, Steven Karels posted some questions on the JONP about what might be possible with the E-Cat, and Rossi gave some answers.
1. Is the 100kW eCat reactor still a possibility?
A. a possibility yes, a reality no2. Could we expect the possibility of a 10MW eCat unit?
A. yes3. With such a unit and the previously envisioned 2.5GW thermal source, this could be implemented with an ensemble of 250 each 10MW eCat units to power a 1GW electrical power generation station. Do you see this as a possibility?
A. as a matter of fact, I do not see why so many modules cannot be combined in an assembly.
Rossi has never explained why large single reactors won’t work as well as the smaller ones, but I don’t suppose it matters a whole lot. It would be interesting to find out from Rossi how small he thinks they might be able to make an E-Cat.