Explosion in Hokkaido University Cold Fusion Laboratory  January 2, 2005

 
Incubator chassis after the explosion. Remainder of cell apparatus is in background, in the center of the metal-frame enclosure.

Jed Rothwell describes this photo: "The object in the left foreground is the Pyrex safety door on the incubator, and the handle on the door. In the middle of the photo the mesh anode and the cooling tube are clearly seen. I am not sure where the black rubber sealing ring on the bottom came from. I believe the remains of the glass funnel are poking out of the top of the black rubber stopper, and one shard of glass below the stopper is also from the funnel, I think. The insulated tube on the top right is the condenser."

For more figures and sketches about this configuration and information about Mizuno's work, Rothwell suggests the following paper:
http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/MizunoTgeneration.pdf

Upper view of the electrolysis apparatus after the accident.

Radial fracture pattern of the bottom of the flask.

Commentary by Horace Heffner:
"It appears the explosion may well have been ignited in the flask, but the main energy from the explosion came from the top interior of the Yamato 1L-6 incubator. It looks like the explosive force was primarily downward, and the overpressure on the conical cap on the flask blew the flask apart in radial directions, leaving the base cracked but in leaving it place. It looks like the base of the flask may be stuck (by prior heating) to the polypropylene insulation underneath it. 

Assuming the plastic door was not blown to pieces, the overpressure was clearly enough to blow open the plastic door before the glass shards went through the open door. This indicates the overpressure hit the door before the flask pieces. The source of the blast pressure that opened the plastic door was therefore not inside the flask, but rather probably coming from the top of the 1L-6 downward. 

One has to wonder if there was a long run at a somewhat earlier time, but not more than a few days prior to starting the demonstration for the visitor. From the pdf experiment description it appears the hydrogen from the flask is ultimately dumped into the interior of the 1L-6, even if/when the generated gas volume is being measured. There are clearly various spaces in the 1L-6 that could trap an H2-O2 mixture, even if the door were opened for a while for access to the experiment. Upon closing the plastic door and leaving the experiment sit, any residual H2 in semi-confined spaces (e.g. cloth, instrument boxes, etc.) in the 1L-6 would eventually tend to diffuse toward the top of the 1L-6."

Sample cathode above, cathode after accident below (in Teflon cover)

 
Researcher Tadahiko Mizuno was rendered completely deaf for a week after the explosion.

Normal view of apparatus 

Normal view of cell

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