Energy Update: Speculation on the Cold Fusion Front

What is cold fusion as we understand it today? The answer is: “nobody really knows.”

It is certainly not nuclear fusion as we understand it because the transmutation of elements as described by those who purport to have developed cold fusion reactors defies the laws of physics. Once the quest of medieval alchemists, transmutation of the elements sought a way to convert dross metals like lead and turn them into gold. Well it didn’t work then and it doesn’t work today, that is, unless you compress two chemical elements with such force that they fuse to create a new element and emit elementary particles, gamma rays and a ton of heat. But that is not cold fusion. That’s what processes in the Sun do, and what a tokamak reactor does. And that’s the force behind hydrogen bombs.

But nothing to date quite explains the anomalous excess heat that appears to be the outcome of the chemistry that goes on in low-energy nuclear reactors or LEN-Rs, the newer term for what Pons and Fleischmann initially called cold fusion. When they first announced they had discovered anomalous heat in their experiment they were using deuterium (heavy water) and palladium. The interaction between these two was reported by them to be fusion although they found no evidence of fusion having actually occurred. There were no elementary particles discharged. And certainly no transmutation of deuterium to another element. What they observed was anomalous heat.

But if fusion were occurring what would it look like? Two deuterium atoms fusing together could become Tritium, Helium 3 or Helium 4. In all three cases elementary particles and gamma rays would be byproducts. But Pons and Fleischmann never detected any of these three elements, nor the elementary particles, just anomalous heat.

That takes us to Andrea Rossi, who I have written about on several occasions in the past. He is the developer of the E-Cat which he describes as a low energy nuclear reactor or LEN-R. He claims that in combining powdered nickel and hydrogen and introducing a secret catalyst that the output is transmutation to copper with anomalous heat as the byproduct.

Rossi is seen by many to be a fraud. Recent tests of his E-Cat however indicated net power output six times greater than input. How could that be? Well one thing we don’t know about Rossi’s device is what’s under the covers. He calls it a catalyst and has declared it an industrial trade secret. When he has attempted to file patents for the device, however, they have been rejected. And the recent independent testing that has verified anomalous heat output did not get a peak inside to see what physically is happening. Not only that the testers reported “that the device was already in operation when the trial began,” that observation cameras and sensors were placed by Rossi and not the independent team, and that elements introduced into the device were not weighed prior to the test. Does this suggest a bit of larceny? Perhaps! One thing we do know, Rossi’s claim that what is happening, the transmutation of nickel and hydrogen to copper and heat, is not possible under any current known physical laws.

But what Rossi is peddling is not the same as what Pons and Fleischmann detected. And that remains a mystery that to-date no single theory explains. A simple explanation may be that we are witnessing spontaneous combustion occurring when two chemical elements in the presence of a third generate a catalytic heat response. To date 66 different theories have been propounded to explain what Pons and Fleischmann observed. But one thing for sure as an article published in Forbes yesterday stated, we know there is anomalous heat but the term “cold fusion” needs to go away so that the alchemy and magic is finally removed from the equation.

2nd article http://www.21stcentech.com/post-yesterday-cold-fusion-produces-plethora-opinions/

My Post Yesterday on Cold Fusion Produces a Plethora of Opinions
July 17, 2013by lenrosen46 Comments I was both trashed and praised yesterday for writing that cold fusion is a misnomer for what is being observed by some in experiments with deuterium, palladium, nickel, hydrogen and unknown and unnamed catalysts. I was told that “you more or less got everything wrong” by one reader and by others that there is no evidence from any cold fusion experiments that anomalous heat is produced greater than the energy input.

I was told by another reader “if you think that the production of U238 fission products by transmutation in a LENR (low energy nuclear reactor) reaction is not nuclear, then you are in the wrong line of work…please educate yourself.” I’m all for educating myself so I looked up one of the terms introduced by this particular commenter - nanoplasmonics, (see image below) which I found out is the study of optical phenomena at a nanoscale. Nanoplasmonics concerns plasmons described as entities that “lurk on and below the surface of metals.” I must admit this was an entirely new subject for me and I wondered what it had to do with cold fusion and the presence of observed anomalous heat generation.

I was given a link by this same reader to a paper. Here is the link for all who are interested. In the article it states that “recent theoretical work shows the capability of laser radiation to directly excite nuclear levels of energy.” The technology described uses lasers to initiate nuclear reactions in nanoparticles suspended in liquid. This leads to nuclear decay. This phenomena is what my reader was referring to when he commented on my denial of transmutation as being anything more than alchemy. The paper goes on to state:

“If the results from works on “cold fusion” raised (and still raise) certain doubts due to their irreproducibility in different laboratories, experimental evidence on the possibility of the transmutation of various nuclei upon the laser excitation of nanoparticles and electro-explosions of metallic electrodes in aqueous solutions of salts of unstable isotopes are well reproducible. These results confirm the possibility of initiation of nuclear transformations in cold plasma.”

I won’t quarrel with the prose although it is quite a mouthful. The paper, however, goes on to describe experiments using lasers to irradiate different nanoparticles in cold suspensions and concludes that in fact transmutation is observed with the synthesis of tritium from deuterium oxide (heavy water).

Here, however, is where I have some problems. The paper is undated. In my attempts to find if it had been published anywhere I came up empty. That included doing Google searches, a search on the CERN pub site and on other journal article aggregation sites. So for the moment all I can conclude is that I have been given a document that may or may not have been peer reviewed, and may be on to something or not. But I am sure I will hear more from this reader who did ask me to educate myself and so I have lived up to the request.

Another reader also questioned my intelligence and knowledge and pointed me to the work being conducted by Defkalion, a company that has been associated with Andrea Rossi and has sought funding from the Greek government in the past. I find it funny that anyone would seek funding from a government that has itself sought a bailout from the European Union, but that’s another subject.

So what does Defkalion add to solving the mystery of cold fusion? Here is what one reader sent me although I found no reference to it on Defkalion’s web pages:

“There will be an official announcement of this technology during ICCF 18 (International Conference Cold Fusion 18) at the University of Missouri (USA). For those interested you can see this webcast of all phases of the experiment , ignition, performance and switching off. Two independent scientists and two science journalists at international level will participate in this broadcast, as well as a member of the Cicap. ”

This announcement was purported to come directly from the CEO of Defkalion, Franco Cappiello.

Another reader had things to say about Defkalion that were less than kind but I will let you find their comments in the postings. To me Defkalion remains a quandary. I have viewed presentations they have posted in which they describe observed transmutations from vulcanism and high-voltage accidents with the implication that, therefore, LENR is real. But I have yet to see or read about any of the supposed companies that are partnering with them to rollout OEM versions of the Hyperion (seen below), a commercial LENR product that has been promised on several occasions.

For those of you seeking answers to the mystery of cold fusion and the anomalous heat observations I would recommend you either attend the upcoming ICCF-18 Conference at the Columbia, Missouri campus of University of Missouri taking place next week (July 21-27) or research the presenters and get access to the papers they submit.

I will leave you with a quote from the document ascribed to the keynote speaker who is presenting at the conference.

“Science is data driven. Once a hypothesis isformed, the most important scientific task is to disprove the hypothesis. Only after failure to find conflicting data is a hypothesis accepted as likely correct, but that acceptance can change on a moments notice when new data arises.”
He further states, “unfortunately, the poor reproducibility (<6%) [referring to LENR experimental results] prevented discovery of the trigger for this excess heat.”
In conclusion to those who are pro and those who are anti cold fusion I want you to understand that no one more than me would love to hear that this technology is what it claims to be….a source of unlimited energy that can save the planet by stopping the burning of fossil fuels. So this time next week we may find out that LENR is ready for market or still a lab phenomena that has unpredictable outcomes and, therefore, is not ready for prime time.
I hope all of you who are invested in the subject will keep on top of what ensues from the ICCF-18 conference. I know I will be paying attention and reporting back to you here at 21st Century Tech blog.

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