While the one-year test of the 1 MW E-Cat plant may seem like an interminable wait for some of us who are looking forward to getting the end results, it seems that it is proving to be a beneficial process for Andrea Rossi, Industrial Heat and Leonardo Corp. One of the main benefits that will likely come out of it will be an improvement on the first generation of E-Cat plants that will be made available to the wider market.
We have heard from Andrea Rossi that there have been occasions when reactors have had to go offline for repairs, and that there has been at least one week of downtime to deal with various technical problems. Yesterday Rossi posted on the Journal of Nuclear Physics regarding the status of the plant:
Now it’s 09.45 inside the computers container, on Thursday Sept 24: situation stable, for the 1 MW E-Cat, even if we are continuing to record corrections to be make in the next plants to improve the technology
I asked on the JONP about how different the next generation of plants would be compared to the current model, and Rossi responded:
Surely this long and thoroughly test has taught us many things and gave us many informations. For obvious reasons I cannot disclose particulars that also will substantiate new patents.
I then followed up asking whether the current plant would continue to operate at the customer site after the test is completed. His reply:
I think she will continue to operate here, because we are making all the necessary reparations. Obviously this issue will be decided in collaboration between the Customer, IH and Leonardo Corporation on the base of the situation at the end of the test period. In a nutshell: if a new Corvette is produced every year, this does not mean that the Corvette of the year before has to be retired, if it goes well and respects the EPA requirements!
So even though the plant has had its problems, it sounds like the repairs that have been made are anticipated to be strong enough to allow the plant to continue to operate successfully into the future. I believe Rossi is something of a car connoisseur, and so his reference to the Corvette might tell us something about the regard in which he holds this E-Cat plant Mk. I!
