Many follow the gradual development of Andreas Rossi's "E-Cat", which Rossi claims to generate heat from nickel-hydrogen fusion, and unlike such reactions in the nucleus of stars at normal temperatures.

The big event, the publication of a paper on a month of ongoing tests conducted in March, led by a group independent of Rossi and his partner Industrial Heat, was made today.

The results are to a large extent what I expected, and they are basically quite positive.

In a nutshell, the device produced so much energy that it can only explain the nuclear reaction, and the reaction products are visible, but no one has detected any nuclear radiation.

E-Cat testing took place in three phases:

• 1) without inserting any fuel

This was a verification test setting for the measuring devices to accurately measure both the electrical input to the cell and the heat released from the article by convective heating and thermal radiation of the black body.

• 2) With approximately 800 W power input after 10 days it produced about 1600 W output power.
• 3) With approximately 900 W power for the rest of the test, it produced about 2300 W output power.

This confirmed what the supporters expected. Although the COP (Power to Power Ratio) ratio was lower than expected, the authors made it clear that the article deliberately operated with lower power to limit the heat output change. They pointed out that by adding a little more than 100 W power, the performance gained about 700 W. This incremental amount is much more in line with expectations.

This is what is most important - to bring power and to get significantly more power. From what I've read so far, Industrial Heat has not used E-Cat to produce high-pressure steam and then electricity. This could only mean that they have not yet solved the mechanical design of the reactor, and in the meantime it does not cost a boiler.

The most interesting part of the report is the isotopic analysis of the fuel before the test and then the "ash" from it. In summary, those reviewers have no idea what happened during the test run. They are totally surprised by the mystery and refuse to speculate about it.

Before testing, they analyzed only one gram of fuel. Nickel (Ni), lithium (Li), aluminum (Al), iron (Fe) and hydrogen (H) were identified as key components. (The analytical method also found carbon (C) and oxygen (O), but the file obviously failed to indicate the fineness of the grains in the powder used.) Ni and H were due to Rossi's past descriptions.

He also reported the catalyst he said was inexpensive and not a hindrance to wide-ranging engagement. Analysis showed that this catalyst is LiAlH4, which releases atomic hydrogen when heated, thus adding a gap in speculation about the role of the catalyst.

For all elements, they found that they have naturally occurring isotopic composition ratios. There was speculation that Rossi uses nickel enriched with certain isotopes, but apparently not.

After testing, they also analyzed ash. The samples were so small that it obviously prevented the measurement of the actual mass of the various isotopes, so the dossier is concentrated only on percentages. It would be nice if they had real weight.

Natural nickel is primarily 58Ni and 60Ni. It was almost completely consumed and the nickel in ash was almost all 62Ni. I expected that Ni + H would lead to Cu, but some of the relevant Cu isotopes that would arise from it are radioactive, but 62Ni is stable.

This lithium may not have been just a catalyst, the natural Li is almost everything 7Li, but the surface analysis of ash showed that lithium was almost exclusively 6Li. I am not a nuclear physicist, so I will refrain from any speculation. The authors have gone through some reflection paths but eventually put their hands away and simply said that more studies are needed. Hydrogen was not analyzed - did he participate?

Around and around, it's a huge, perhaps historic, result. There was plenty of evidence that E-Cat was working, but Rossi was always there.

Now we have an independent team working at our own pace and equipment from our universities. They see that it works and presents numerous proofs of evidence that it is a nuclear process.

The fact that there is no explanation for this process is annoying, but it does not prevent E-Cat commercialization. Crying around has stopped, science has barely begun, but we can be on the doorstep of the next major energy sources for civilization.

These are interesting times.