Flickr / cc-licensed jmayer

An attempt by the Martin Fleischmann Memorial Project to replicate E-Cat, Andrea Rossi's alleged cold fusion reactor, ended explosively yesterday after the reactor heated to over 1,000C.

The MFMP is a group dedicated to co-operative, open-source research into cold fusion. Because the effects tend to be so small, much of the work has been on calorimetry (the science of measuring heat) and calibration to ensure that any excess heat is real. However, MFMP's Project Dog Bone is aiming at something bigger, producing large amounts of excess heat as claimed by Rossi, professor Alexander Parkhomov of Lomonosov Moscow State University and independent US researcher Jack Cole.


In line with their approach of carrying out all the research as publicly as possible, the experiment was shown on a live video feed. The reactor can be seen cracking apart with a loud bang three hours 47 minutes into the embedded video.

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Fortunately, the experimenters noticed the temperature rise, and put up a blast shield in the minute before the explosion. The soundtrack records the experimenters' surprised and excited responses to the blast:

"That was exciting!"


"Did you hear it?!"

"Was the shield a good idea?"

"The shield was a good idea!" (Laughter)

"Oh mama!... we have no silicon carbide element, and we have a vapourised reactor..."

"So... was that a runaway reaction? Are we in the domain of Parkhomov?"


It is too soon to say whether the explosion really was due to the sort of runaway cold fusion reactions alleged to have destroyed a number of Parkhomov's test reactors, or whether it was something simpler: hydrogen is involved so conventional explosions are always possible, and lithium aluminium hydride is pyrophoric, busting into flames in air.

The MFMP might just have succeeded in producing its first visible cold fusion reaction at last. Rossi has indicated that the difficult part is maintaining a controlled, stable reaction once it starts and preventing runaway, and this may be why he feels he is ahead in the race to commercialise the technology.

Project Dog Bone continues. Meanwhile, Brian Ahern, a former USAF senior scientist and once one of Rossi's fiercest critics, is also now attempting to replicate the E-Cat effect.