Diskussion:Defkalion

Mr. Andrea Rossi was seeking financing and a marketing channel for his technology. With a Greek friend of his, Professor Stremmenos, they travelled to Greece and met with the Greek Prime Minister for official support. The result of that meeting was an unofficial introduction to Mr. Alexandros Xanthoulis who decided to look more closely into what Mr. Rossi had to offer. Following a number of meetings in Bologna, Mr. Xanthoulis decided to sign a contract with Mr. Rossi. Defkalion was created to commercialize the black box technology Rossi claimed he had on a global scale, excluding the United States of America and all military applications. Defkalion worked on engineering designs and business development as early as 2010. The relationship between the two sides broke down in August 2011 because of a lack of common understanding on contractual obligations. CEO, Alexandros Xanthoulis, gathered his team at that point and asked for a show of hands on what should happen to the company now that there was no more Rossi, hence no more technology, hence nothing to move forward with. Symeon, who was present during that meeting, told me that everyone cast their vote on imminent closure since we had nothing except John Hadjichristos, the CTO of Defkalion and chief scientist behind today’s accomplishments. Hadjichristos asked for six months support and claimed confidence above 90%. By November of 2011, well before the six months were over, Hadjichristos had visible signs of an LENR reaction.

At that point Defkalion assembled a team of scientists and asked them to figure out LENR. They responded by studying everything that had been published on the topic, which actually is quite a lot as anyone who has looked into lenr-canr.org will attest to. This study allowed Defkalion to understand what not to do since everything to date has failed. over time, Defkalion has come to announce and show that they are actually able to tame the LENR beast for themselves. The growth and development of Defkalion was thus able to take off and leave Mr. Rossi to do follow his own work. At this point, Symeon would say that Mr. Rossi is respected but has nothing to do with Defkalion. He informs me that the company’s position is that they wish Mr. Rossi, and all other scientists in the field, success.

The next thing that I learned (I don’t know how this slipped past me and it won’t surprise me if posters point out that I wrote about it) was that Forbes magazine published an excellent article on Defkalion. The Forbes Document primarily reports on the findings of Dr. Nelson. As Mark Gibbs published in Forbes: “Michael A. Nelson, [is] a NASA employee of some thirty years standing. I contacted Mr. Nelson and found out that he was not attending the test as a representative of NASA but rather on behalf of the New Energy Foundation.”

Mr. Gibbs’ bottom line is that a real scientist has had excellent and extensive access to Defkalion’s technology, and he finds it compelling! (Note that Eng. Rossi has allowed real scientists to look at his technology, but their level of access has been far too limited and controlled to become compelling.)

Now, there also was discussion about a certain report in a Greek newspaper. This report has caused Defkalion some amount of grief, especially the statement, “For every dollar you spend as a company in Canada, the provincial government of British Columbia will put other three.” (Google translation). To help people understand what has been said here, British Columbia (BC) is a province within Canada. The best analogy is that it is like a state with the United States. It has its own budget, and its own taxation. The BC government doesn’t seem to be pleased that they are reported as spending R&D money that they did not spend. (Especially, of course, when mainstream scientists are pronouncing without examination that LENR is hooey.)

I was not able to confirm any source of government support. However, the Canadian government has a very impressive program called the Scientific Research and Experimental Development program (SR&ED, referred to as “shred”). This program is impressive, I have used it myself. Its focus is very narrow to research and experimental development. (By experimental, the government means that it is something that has not been done before, and that might end up not working.) This program is great in that it is not micromanaged by the government. Their view is that if risk is being taken, and if the people doing the work are qualified, then they are prepared to participate in the risk. IE, it’s a great match for Defkalion.

A few notes:

· Only the R&D portion of expenditures can be applied to the SR&ED program. It doesn’t cover the light bill, the secretaries, the business department etc. · The funding formula is complex, the 3 to 1 is the maximum theoretical amount. However the return is not nearly as lucrative in most R&D situations. · It is a tax credit, not a grant. I learned that there is another R&D pursuit that Defkalion is taking on. They are building a real-time mass spectrometer. It is their expectation that this device will be able to analyze the isotope mix within the reactor core in real time. This should provide incite into exactly what is going on in the LENR reaction.

Vancouver does offer Defkalion a lot of advantages, one of which is the SR&ED program. Further, the Canadian government has recognized that the LENR reaction is not a classic nuclear reaction, so it does not need to comply with the safety regulations developed for classic nuclear reactions. CSA (The Canadian Standards Association) is just down the street, and has rights to certify safety even for the US market. And, of course, Canada’s economy is not at the epicenter of all of the trouble.

Speaking to the head of business development, I surely learned about Defkalion’s business strategy. We all seem to know that Defkalion is selling the exclusive right to manufacture and market the Hyperion reactor (their intended 5 – 45kW reactor) to a region (country or group of countries.)

However, they are placing emphasis on a second marketing strategy, a strategy that I find more interesting. They are developing technical/business relationships with existing companies to develop custom LENR devices for the company’s needs. These relationships involve a relationship between the company’s technologists and Defkalion’s technologists. Symeon refers to this as a “common R&D project”.

Consider a company wants to produce an LENR car, for instance (just hopin’), their engineers would work with Defkalion’s engineers to create the ideal LENR device for that application. The company that is making the car would then set up manufacture of the LENR device. Other technologies that Symeon mentioned include ship propulsion and agriculture.

The other corporate relationship would be one who needs a custom LENR solution for an in-house problem. If a company, for instance, has many buildings which all need heat, they may work with Defkalion to engineer the ideal LENR engine. The company needing the LENR device would then arrange for its manufacture.

In closing, there clearly is an actively staffed Defkalion office at 1140 Homer St. (I was able to confirm at least 4 employees at that location.) Symeon is willing to sit down with the likes of me, and share about the company. I saw no evidence that R&D is happening at that location. My time with Defkalion was educational.

Symeon told me that some time in the near future they will be putting on demonstrations and testing opportunities for select corporations, governments, etc. At some point they will be inviting the press. He has promised me that when they begin to invite the general press, I will be invited to attend as well. I do want to be the first on my block to lay eyes on a working LENR device.