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The talk I’d like to give — I shall start from the beginning —
is on what is known today as Cold Fusion:
it began around 22 years ago
when an American researcher, an American chemist,
claimed to have produced energy through a nuclear fusion process
obtained by using Palladium, which is a metal,
and Deuterium, which is heavy hydrogen.
After that, many followed on his track,
and worked for 22 years
without getting any major result.
As far as I’m concerned,
a friend from the University of Siena and I
decided to work in a likewise manner,
but using Hydrogen and Nickel.
And we did get a number of results,
i.e. production of energy through interaction between Hydrogen and Nickel.
At a later time, I began working again,
after having interrupted my previous work,
together with Dr Rossi; and we were working along the same line:
building systems capable of producing energy
through hydrogen and nickel.
Now ... there’s yet ... what you can see now are the results of this work.
There are ... there’s the first picture... there,
this is one of the first experiments performed with Dr Rossi.
So you see ... on the left [corrects himself] ... on the right, there is a small red bucket, which contains water
with seveal objects immersed in it;
and on the left the hydrogen tank,
which is ... which was used to inject hydrogen in this capsule,
where we had placed the nickel as well.
By heating them together — nickel and hydrogen —
we got energy
and, as a result, heated the water.
The experiment is obviously quite crude,
because it would not have been worth the trouble
to build a sophisticated object for that experiment.
Here’s the next experiment.
This time, instead of a bucket of water,
on the right there’s that donut-like object
with water circulating in it,
inside of which lies the capsule
containing nickel and hydrogen.
The tube on the right, the one you see on the lower right,
leads the hydrogen in;
at the center there is hydrogen tank;
by this, we got a confirmation
on the data of the previous experiment
with a cleaner system than the previous one.
The third picture... now
here’s another, a third, method to perform measurements.
This time we have a closed circuit.
In the background, on the right, you can easily spot the tube
in which that cylinder is inserted ... that’s also on the right.
Water circulates in the tube.
In the cylinder the heating process takes place,
and this is a nuclear reaction between nickel and hydrogen;
and what was observed by us experimentally
was the difference of temperature between the two extremes of the cylinder.
So, the three experiments confirmed
that the system was actually able to produce energy
in the form of heat.
We were able to heat up water.
This one I believe is .... yes, this is one of the latest objects built by Dr Rossi —
it has been named E-Cat,
where “Cat” is short for catalyzer —
and it is usually and currently used
to perform experiments
where, again,
the nickel-hydrogen reaction
is used to produce heat.
And the heat produced is demonstrated
by heating up water,
with various devices, this being one of them.
Now, well, this is the forthcoming item built by Dr Rossi,
once again based on the same process;
it looks something like a boxcar [Translator’s note: it's a shipping container],
you can’t tell from here, but it’s smaller than a boxcar.
You can see some boxes inside,
each one of which is a generator
producing the same effects I described before.
The result of all these elements working together
is supposed to be a power output
of one million watts.
It hasn’t been run yet with all generators working together;
but it shall be by the end of this month.
Let’s say we’re talking about a difference in size here,
but each one of those boxes you see here
is like the old generators,
where the hydrogen-nickel reaction
is used to get heat.
This is clearly a nuclear reaction;
so much so that in the experiments we performed
(we’ve been conducting them for about two years, a year and a half,
I can't remember the exact date when we began),
at the end of the experiment,
when analyzing the residue material —
i.e. the material which had been inserted in the capsule,
nickel originally, to which hydrogen had been added to —
we found not only nickel but copper as well.
Now, copper is the element which follows nickel
on the periodic scale. It is right next to nickel;
and the copper nucleus differs from the nickel nucleus
only in that it has an extra proton.
A proton which was introduced
and captured by the nickel
in the nuclear reaction process.
So this is another proof of the fact
that, when we state that this is a nuclear reaction
between nickel and hydrogen,
this is no fanciful statement.
We’ve got proof because — in terms of results —
copper is formed in the end.
Now, one of the issues which arise
when talking about these topics
is the safety issue.
And, in our case, the threat to safety
is radioactivity,
because, this being a nuclear process,
one obviously expects radioactivity
to arise in the process.
This is true;
luckily, though,
this process yields only gamma rays
and no neutrons.
I must say that I pointed out the risk,
the danger from neutrons
from the beginning of my collaboration with Rossi;
and Rossi, obviously, took the proper countermeasures
because, well, if there had been any neutrons,
we would have been in a tight spot;
you can shield neutrons,
but it’s not a simple problem.
Fortunately, there are no neutrons.
But we do have gamma rays.
I experienced the presence of gamma rays firsthand,
in the early experiments conducted in the laboratory
Rossi had at the time in Bondeno;
often I would be the one performing measurements
while he went about his business.
In the first measurements, I would use a radiation
detector and measure gamma rays.
Not very dangerous ones,
not in doses much above the normal background level,
but nonetheless present.
And obviously there was no reason
for the natural radioactivity level to rise.
But we never detected any neutrons,
and this was always my main concern,
because neutrons are difficult to shield.
There weren’t any.
So we solved the gamma ray problem
by simply adding,
all around the energy generator,
small pieces of lead sheeting
which are able
to shield gamma rays.
By operating in this manner,
there is no radioactivity risk.
This is good thing, not just for us,
but particularly in view of commercial applications.
I believe that I could stop at this point,
thank you.
(Applause)