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'Cold fusion' rebirth? New evidence for existence of controversial energy source (3/24/2009)

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cold fusion, fusion

An experimental 'cold fusion' device produced this pattern of 'triple tracks' (shown at right), which scientists say is caused by high-energy nuclear particles resulting from a nuclear reaction - Pam Boss, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR)

Researchers are reporting compelling new scientific evidence for the existence of low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR), the process once called "cold fusion" that may promise a new source of energy. One group of scientists, for instance, describes what it terms the first clear visual evidence that LENR devices can produce neutrons, subatomic particles that scientists view as tell-tale signs that nuclear reactions are occurring.

Low-energy nuclear reactions could potentially provide 21st Century society a limitless and environmentally-clean energy source for generating electricity, researchers say. The report, which injects new life into this controversial field, will be presented here today at the American Chemical Society's 237th National Meeting. It is among 30 papers on the topic that will be presented during a four-day symposium, "New Energy Technology," March 22-25, in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the first description of cold fusion.

"Our finding is very significant," says study co-author and analytical chemist Pamela Mosier-Boss, Ph.D., of the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) in San Diego, Calif. "To our knowledge, this is the first scientific report of the production of highly energetic neutrons from an LENR device."

The first report on "cold fusion," presented in 1989 by Martin Fleishmann and Stanley Pons, was a global scientific sensation. Fusion is the energy source of the sun and the stars. Scientists had been striving for years to tap that power on Earth to produce electricity from an abundant fuel called deuterium that can be extracted from seawater. Everyone thought that it would require a sophisticated new genre of nuclear reactors able to withstand temperatures of tens of millions of degrees Fahrenheit.

Pons and Fleishmann, however, claimed achieving nuclear fusion at comparatively "cold" room temperatures - in a simple tabletop laboratory device termed an electrolytic cell.

But other scientists could not reproduce their results, and the whole field of research declined. A stalwart cadre of scientists persisted, however, seeking solid evidence that nuclear reactions can occur at low temperatures. One of their problems involved extreme difficulty in using conventional electronic instruments to detect the small number of neutrons produced in the process, researchers say.

In the new study, Mosier-Boss and colleagues inserted an electrode composed of nickel or gold wire into a solution of palladium chloride mixed with deuterium or "heavy water" in a process called co-deposition. A single atom of deuterium contains one neutron and one proton in its nucleus.

Researchers passed electric current through the solution, causing a reaction within seconds. The scientists then used a special plastic, CR-39, to capture and track any high-energy particles that may have been emitted during reactions, including any neutrons emitted during the fusion of deuterium atoms.

At the end of the experiment, they examined the plastic with a microscope and discovered patterns of "triple tracks," tiny-clusters of three adjacent pits that appear to split apart from a single point. The researchers say that the track marks were made by subatomic particles released when neutrons smashed into the plastic. Importantly, Mosier-Boss and colleagues believe that the neutrons originated in nuclear reactions, perhaps from the combining or fusing deuterium nuclei.

"People have always asked 'Where's the neutrons?'" Mosier-Boss says. "If you have fusion going on, then you have to have neutrons. We now have evidence that there are neutrons present in these LENR reactions."

They cited other evidence for nuclear reactions including X-rays, tritium (another form of hydrogen), and excess heat. Meanwhile, Mosier-Boss and colleagues are continuing to explore the phenomenon to get a better understanding of exactly how LENR works, which is key to being able to control it for practical purposes.

Mosier-Boss points out that the field currently gets very little funding and, despite its promise, researchers can't predict when, or if, LENR may emerge from the lab with practical applications. The U.S. Department of the Navy and JWK International Corporation in Annandale, Va., funded the study.

Other highlights in the symposium include:

Overview, update on LENR by editor of New Energy Times - Steve Krivit, editor of New Energy Times and author of "The Rebirth of Cold Fusion," will present an overview of the field of low energy nuclear reactions, formerly known as "cold fusion." A leading authority on the topic, Krivit will discuss the strengths, weaknesses, and implications of this controversial subject, including its brief history. (ENVR 002, Sunday, March 22, 8:55 a.m. Hilton, Alpine Ballroom West, during the symposium, "New Energy Technology)

Excess heat, gamma radiation production from an unconventional LENR device -Tadahiko Mizuno, Ph.D., of Hokkaido University in Japan, has reported the production of excess heat generation and gamma ray emissions from an unconventional LENR device that uses phenanthrene, a type of hydrocarbon, as a reactant. He is the author of the book "Nuclear Transmutation: The Reality of Cold Fusion." (ENVR 049, Monday, March 23, 3:35 p.m., Hilton, Alpine Ballroom West, during the symposium, "New Energy Technology.")

New evidence supporting production and control of low energy nuclear reactions - Antonella De Ninno, Ph.D., a scientist with New Technologies Energy and Environment in Italy, will describe evidence supporting the existence of low energy nuclear reactions. She conducted lab experiments demonstrating the simultaneous production of both excess heat and helium gas, tell-tale evidence supporting the nuclear nature of LENR. She also shows that scientists can control the phenomenon. (ENVR 064, Tuesday, March 24, 10:10 a.m., Hilton, Alpine Ballroom West, during the symposium, "New Energy Technology)

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the American Chemical Society

Comments:

1.	besty johnson
	3/27/2009 9:22:24 AM MST
	I find this news about cold fusion very interesting and think it is just the start of more to come. I have been following a company called Energetics Technologies they have a process called SuperWAve Fusion that they say has produced excess heat. I would like to know what others think about this process. check them out at EnergeticsTechnologies.com thanks

2.	Lewis Larsen
	3/29/2009 7:51:43 AM MST
	Prof. Paul Padley's (Rice University) criticism of the Mosier-Boss work in a Houston Chronicle news story was correct: they failed to provide any believable theoretical explanation of how a fusion process could occur in condensed matter systems under such experimental conditions. Further down below there are titles and URLs to our seven theoretical publications on LENRs, beginning with our peer-reviewed EPJC publication in March 2006. There are also links to six 'plain English' articles on LENRs that were published by I-SiS, as well as a public online MS-PowerPoint presentation that provides a concise high level historical and technical overview of LENRs as seen through the 'lens' of our theoretical work. The Institute of Science in Society (I-SiS) is a nonprofit 'green' environmental organization headquartered in London, UK (http://www.i-sis.org.uk/index.php ). Over the years, I-SiS has made notable contributions to efforts that aim to curtail the spread of genetically modified crops in Europe. Until recently, I-SiS (like Greenpeace) has also steadfastly opposed expanded use of nuclear (fission) power. However, after investigating LENRs in 2007, I-SiS changed its policy position on nuclear power. In fact, I-SiS now encourages commercial development and deployment of nuclear technology in the form of weak interaction LENRs (as opposed to strong interaction fission or fusion processes) as a truly 'green,' carbon-free nuclear energy technology. In our theory, surmounting a high Coulomb barrier is a non-issue. As shown in our papers, LENRs in condensed matter systems do not involve any kind of Coulomb barrier-penetrating fusion, i.e., deuterium-deuterium, D-T, hot, "cold," warm, or otherwise. Furthermore, LENRs did not begin with Pons & Fleischmann in 1989 --- we have uncovered evidence in published peer-reviewed literature that heretofore unexplained, anomalous LENR-related phenomena have been seen episodically in certain types of experiments for at least 100 years. None of our work includes the assumption of any new microscopic physics. What is novel about our new theoretical approach to LENRs is that, for the first time, we extend many-body collective effects to existing electroweak theory within the overall framework of the Standard Model. In a total of seven technical publications, we have developed a foundational theory of LENRs that weaves together all of the previously disparate threads of varied experimental evidence into a coherent whole. We have done so using rigorous, established, well-accepted physics. In our view, the Widom-Larsen theory can explain all of the good experimental data in LENRs. Pons & Fleischmann were correct about excess heat being a real physical effect, albeit poorly reproducible because they were completely wrong on the underlying mechanism and had no appreciation whatsoever of crucial nanoscale device fabrication issues that are in the process of being solved by our company today. However, P&F were dead wrong about it being strong interaction, Coulomb barrier-penetrating D-D fusion that was producing the observed 'excess' heat. Unbeknownst to anyone back in 1989 and many people today, P&F's experimental results were actually the result of condensed matter collective effects and weak interactions. Posted February 14, 2009 (24 slides): http://www.slideshare.net/lewisglarsen/lattice-energy-llchigh-level-historical-and-technical-overview-of-lenrsfeb-14-2009 #1. November 13, 2008 Low Energy Nuclear Reactions for Green Energy - How weak interactions can provide sustainable nuclear energy and revolutionize the energy industry http://www.i-sis.org.uk/LENRGE.php #2. December 4, 2008 Widom-Larsen Theory Explains Low Energy Nuclear Reactions &Why They Are Safe and Green - All down to collective effects and weak interactions http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Widom-Larsen.php #3. December 10, 2008 Portable and Distributed Power Generation from LENRs - Power output of LENR-based systems could be scaled up to address many different commercial applications http://www.i-sis.org.uk/PortableDistributedPowerFromLENRs.php #4. December 11, 2008 LENRs for Nuclear Waste Disposal - How weak interactions can transform radioactive isotopes into more benign elements http://www.i-sis.org.uk/LENR_Nuclear_Waste_Disposal.php #5. January 26, 2009 Safe, Less Costly Nuclear Reactor Decommissioning and More How weak interaction LENRs can take us out of the nuclear safety and economic black hole http://www.i-sis.org.uk/safeNuclearDecommissioning.php #6. January 27, 2009 LENRs Replacing Coal for Distributed Democratized Power Low energy nuclear reactions have the potential to provide distributed power generation with zero carbon emission and cheaper than coal http://www.i-sis.org.uk/LENRsReplacingCoal.php ***************** URLs to Technical Publications *********************** 1. "Ultra Low Momentum Neutron Catalyzed Nuclear Reactions on Metallic Hydride Surfaces", Eur. Phys. J. C 46, 107 (2006 - arXiv in May 2005) http://www.newenergytimes.com/Library/2006Widom-UltraLowMomentumNeutronCatalyzed.pdf 2. "Absorption of Nuclear Gamma Radiation by Heavy Electrons on Metallic Hydride Surfaces" (Sept 2005) Widom and Larsen http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/cond-mat/pdf/0509/0509269v1.pdf 3. "Nuclear Abundances in Metallic Hydride Electrodes of Electrolytic Chemical Cells" (Feb 2006) Widom and Larsen http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/cond-mat/pdf/0602/0602472v1.pdf 4. "Theoretical Standard Model Rates of Proton to Neutron Conversions Near Metallic Hydride Surfaces" (Sep 2007) Widom and Larsen http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/nucl-th/pdf/0608/0608059v2.pdf 5. "Energetic Electrons and Nuclear Transmutations in Exploding Wires" (Sept 2007) Widom, Srivastava, and Larsen http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0709/0709.1222v1.pdf 6. "High Energy Particles in the Solar Corona" (April 2008) Widom, Srivastava, and Larsen http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0804/0804.2647v1.pdf 7. "Primer for Electro-Weak Induced Low Energy Nuclear Reactions" (Oct 2008) Srivastava, Widom, and Larsen http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0810/0810.0159v1.pdf

3.	energyman99
	5/1/2009 5:27:22 PM MST
	I saw that Energetics Technologies just released a press release saying that both ENEA and SRI Labs have replicated their Cold Fusion Process. Here is a link to their website. www.energeticstechnologies.com go to there research page for more info

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	6/27/2011 6:58:19 AM MST
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'Cold fusion' rebirth? New evidence for existence of controversial energy source (3/24/2009)

Other highlights in the symposium include:

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