The patent office issued a ruling in the aftermath of Pons-Fleischmann that LENR patent applications were no more welcome than perpetual motion machine applications.
Hence, the work has to be carried out as trade secret. There are, however, open source LENR efforts in the birthing stage.
The patent office was once almost closed for good after the invention of the steam engine, because they thought that everything that could be invented already had been.
If you have proof that something is NOT a perpetual motion machine, then they would have to allow it.
I don’t think I am buying that argument as a reason for keeping it this secret- if it is as he claimed he would be sitting on $billions, and it would change the world, so sharing it would make you one of the most famous people in history.
None of the arguments for keeping it hidden make sense when balanced against the enormous benefits.
Mind you, I would be THRILLED to see it be true- I am 1000% in favor of finding new discoveries in science. But this does not pass the smell test- so far, but so far its been about 10 years of nothing.