Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG); the company formerly known as Google, is lending its vast data crunching capabilities to the battle to make hot fusion a reality. Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Tri Alpha Energy have teamed up to create an algorithm that is designed to make it easier commercialize nuclear fusion.
The Optometrist algorithm is designed to combine high-powered computer power with human intuition in an effort to solve some of the many problems related to hot fusion, The Guardian reported. Optometrist was developed by Google Research and tested at Tri Alpha.
“The whole thing is beyond what we know how to do even with Google-scale computer resources,” Ted Baltz of Google’s Accelerated Science Team told The Guardian. That’s saying a lot because Alphabet’s resources are vast; the Silicon Valley reported $99.28 billion in revenues in June 2017. Alphabet also reported having $94.71 billion in cash in the bank on the same day.
Hot fusion might be closer to reality than some of its critics think, but still facing some problems News stories indicate that two important hot fusion milestones might be achieved in the near future.
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France is scheduled to begin generating hot plasma by December 2025, Wall Street Pit reported. Plasma is the super-hot liquid that makes fusion possible. The ITER is an $18 billion (€17.05 billion) multinational effort to prove that the Tokamak fusion reactor is a practical means of producing power.
The December 2025 date is not set in stone, there’s a strong possibility that the ITER might start producing plasma much sooner. Its administrators might be using the old public relations and customer service strategy of under-promise and over-deliver.
They might think the ITER can produce hot plasma much sooner but they are not sure. Therefore they mention a date that’s several years out, so if the reactor starts producing lasma in 2019 it will be pleasant surprise rather than a disappointment.
Our friends at the Martin Fleischmann Memorial Project (MFMP) have put an intriguing statement on their Facebook Page. Here it is:
“What if you had a document that…
– Showed nuclear synthesis without harmful radiation
– had two catalysts, a big and a small one
– could self-sustain
– operated between familiar temperatures
– had demonstrated melt-downs
– works as a fluid
– could be enhanced by other catalysts
Does this mean that the project has actually achieved a sustainable low energy nuclear reaction (LENR)? I don’t know but it is rather fascinating. The project has been reporting some impressive results lately so it might be possible.
New Old LENR Patent?
It might refer to a 1994 patent application for a “Hydride Condensation Process” filed by Richard A. Day and Kenneth A. Rubinson of the University of Cincinnati. Patent WO 1996006434 A1 is for a:
An agency that advises the commanders of the United States military on future weapons technology issued a report that recommends more research into Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR). The Defense Threat Reduction Agency; or DTRA, issued a report entitled Investigation of Nano-Nuclear Reactions in Condensed Matter.
“The Pd/D co-deposition process has been shown to provide a reproducible means of manufacturing Pd-D nano-alloys that induce low energy nuclear reactions (LENRs),” the report states. Pd stands for palladium, a metal widely used in some LENR processes.
“We believe the two phenomena, LENR and high Tc (critical temperatures) superconductivity, are related and that both need to be investigated in order to gain an understanding of the processes occurring inside the Pd lattice,” the reported concluded.
DTRA’s purpose is to defend the United States from weapons of mass destruction. One of its major purposes is to eliminate nuclear weaponry. Another is to keep chemical, biological and nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. DTRA does basic research at Fort Belvoir in Virginia near the Pentagon.
The Martin Fleischmann Memorial Project (MFMP) has achieved an important milestone. The open-sourced research effort has entered into a joint venture with the Center for Nanotechnology at Aarhus University in Denmark to study low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) technology, a post on the project’s Facebook page indicates.
The Center is a serious effort operated in conjunction with the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center. That organization collaborates with researchers at Harvard, North Carolina State University –Raleigh and Arizona State University in the United States. Note there’s no indication those institutions will be involved with the LENR research.
This step is important because it means that MFMP’s research will be studied by researchers and students at a modern, well-funded research university. The work with the Fleischmann Project is part of Aarhus’s Live Open Science initiative.
Among other things it means that the MFMP will share data with Aarhus researchers and the project will receive some funding from Aarhus starting in September. Aarhus is regarded as a leading center for nanotechnology research.
Andrea Rossi is planning yet another “public demonstration” of his ecat low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) technology. He also claims to have new partners to replace Industrial Heat and Tom Darden; with whom he is now in an all-out legal war.
On May 7, 2016; Rossi made the lowing post on his blog:
“Peter Metz:
This preliminary demonstration will be given to our Partners and it will be fundamental to decide the eventual scheduling of our work. If of course, these partners; actually exist.
Any information related to it is, obviously, classified. When I say “Partner” I mean also our new allies with which we are preparing the massive production of the product.
Thank you for your wishes to our great team.
Warm Regards,
A.R.”
The partners are not identified, hopefully that relationship will work out better than the one with Darden and company.
Our friends over at the Martin Fleischmann Memorial Project (MFMP) claim to have achieved a Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) or cold fusion effect. To add icing to the cake they have sent out an email containing what appears to be the formula they used.
Here is the claim they made in the email dated February 23, 2016:
“Around the beginning of the month we saw what appeared to be up to a COP (Coefficient of Power) of 1.2, not earth shattering, but sustained and robust and in line with both observations by others and the Lugano report when adjusted for correct emissivity. Over the next weeks we tried various bookend calibrations which supported this finding.”
“We have said that only two paths would satisfy us:”
The Martin Fleischman Memorial Project (MFMP) has received more of the the wires that are at the heart of Francesco Celani’s low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) devices. The electrically heated and chemically treated wires form the basis of Celani’s cells.
The MFMP is hoping to detect excess heat in them and achieve a low energy nuclear reaction. This can apparently be detected by gamma ray emissions. The project is using an approach it calls live open science in which it shares all the information it has with everybody in order to achieve more wide spread results. The project has had some setbacks lately dealing with choppy and erroneous data that forced its members to rerun some experiments in France.
The race to develop hot fusion is also heating up. World Nuclear News reported that the German Wendelstein 7-X reactor passed its first test by producing hot plasma for the first time on February 4, Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel started the experiment by pushing a button. This could be first step to making enough plasma for a sustained fusion reaction.
Keeping up on developments in the worlds of hot and cold fusion can be difficult because the mainstream media usually ignores those fields. To makes worse some of the bigger players in the field such as Andrea Rossi like to play things close to the vest.
Two major fusion developments in fusion that you probably missed in 2016 were an important step towards workable hot fusion and a fascinating interview with one of Andrea Rossi’s associates. Strangely enough one of the biggest hot fusion stories was ignored because it involved an obscure company in Southern California.
Tri-Alpha Energy managed to hold a globe of plasma that was superheated to 10 million degrees hot together for five milliseconds in August, The Orange County Register reported. That does not sound like much but it is the first time such a sustained fusion reaction has been held together for so long.
There are a few important alternative energy stories out there that the media seems to be ignoring or downplaying. Some of the most interesting recent developments include:
Boeing the giant American aerospace company has a received a US patent for a laser fired fusion-fission turbofan engine that Ars Technica writer Sebastian Anthony described as completely crazy and unrealistic. Basically Boeing’s engine would generate large amounts of heat by using lasers to fuse deuterium and tritium which would cause nuclear fission to create heat to run a turbine.
That sounds a great deal like some of the Low Energy Nuclear Reaction or LENR effects we’ve been hearing about lately. The process is called inertial confinement fusion which sounds like a euphemism for LENR to me. Boeing is apparently looking into the process as a means of powering aircraft but it could easily be adapted to generate electricity in power plants and ships.