I hope this claim-nuclear electricity ten times less expensive than from coal, and without any pollution–to be real. But the odds are against it.
An Italian inventor, Andrea Rossi, claims that a 1000 MW nuclear reactor, being constructed in Greece, will become operational in October 2011. I hope he is right; how can one not be happy to have electricity which is ten times less expensive than from coal, and without any pollution? But I am skeptical. Why? Read this paper:
The explanation is: the optimistic have not done the math. Ignorance is work here. Ignorance or worse, as the saying goes “one cannot con an honest man”.
He is talking about a compound of some sort that is causing the hydrogen and nickel to collide. This would require the catalyst iteself to be exterting a pretty extreme force on the two atoms, and would likely cause a very extreme rise in temperature and give off large amounts of radiation. Instead, we are seeing temperatures more consistent with a small chemical reaction and almost no radiation being given off.
This has been done many, many times before. Note the sense of urgency to sell the product without proof of its functionality. What will likely happen is he will get hundreds of thousands of dollars in donor money, then will suddenly disappear.
It may be possible that someone ahs achieved cold fusion, but I have serious doubts that this is legitimate.
Remember the coffee pot cold fusion from the university of Utah? Millions of dollars were made through fraud. People like the idea of stealing money in this way and want to do the same thing.