Inspired by a xaxnar diary from Aug 16th, Power From Fusion – It May Be A Horse Race, I have been following the story of Andrea Rossi’s Energy Catalyzer “cold fusion” generator. Today, Oct 6th, in Bologna, Italy, the most important test yet appears to have been a success.
The test of the E-Cat, as it’s called, was attended by “invited scientists from around the world, including staff from the University of Bologna,” and performed on one of the 52 units that are intended to be part of a one megawatt generating plant.
"At 19:00, after 4 hours of continuous self-sustaining operation, the reaction has been interrupted as planned. This will allow some time for the E-Cat module to cool down. Afterwards, it will be disassembled and inspected. The end of the operations is planned for 00:00."
One of the commenters on the site referenced above speculated that the energy output by the reaction was 3.5 kilowatts over the four hour period.
A somewhat concerning tweet from attendee and science writer Raymond Zreick:
"we couldn't take pictures of the open cell. and thay didn't show us directly the secret reactor"
Who knows if there’s really anything to it, but I know that some in the Daily Kos community would like to be kept abreast of developments.