On the Vortex-l mailing list, Jed Rothwell has started a thread about the status of efforts to replicate Mizuno’s experiments which claimed significant excess heat in Palladium-Nickel experiments.
The full thread with Jed’s initial comments and further discussion from readers can be accessed here:
https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg118301.html
Jed writes:
Several replications of the Pd-Ni experiment are underway, but they have not been going well. Zhang reported small excess heat. It went away, came back, and now it has gone again. Others say it is not working. I asked Mizuno to comment on what the problems may be. Here is a summary (not an exact translation) of his comments and mine.
His comments:
His biggest concerns is that when he prepares the mesh and rubs Pd on to it, he then immediately puts it into the reactor, evacuates it, and begins the cycles of degassing, then heating and degassing, and D2 gas treatments. Little or no time elapses from the final stages of rubbing to putting it into the reactor. Whereas, when he prepares a mesh and then mails it, a lot of time elapses, which may allow contamination from air, or from the plastic packaging. In other words, the state of the mesh and Pd may change.
He thinks it might be a good idea to send someone an entire reactor that has produced excess heat, with the mesh installed.
He would like to remind people that some Pd is hard and does not rub unto the Ni mesh. You may need to anneal it to soften it. You have to confirm that it has coated on the Ni.
There is a replication now underway in Japan which seems to be going well. We hope we can soon upload a description and some data from it.