The Explanation of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction
An Examination of the Relationship Between Observation and Explanation
Dr. Edmund Storms presents at the ICCF24 x Solid State Energy Summit held July 2022 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
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This is a transcript of the talk by Dr. Edmund Storms Cold Fusion: From Rejection as Fiasco to being Salvation of Civilization.
The rejection is continuing but the salvation has yet to start. To understand the fiasco, a little history is required.
Cold Fusion was born on March 23, 1989
Fathers: Martin Fleischmann, Prof. University of Southampton, Fellow of the Royal Society (born 1927, died 2012)
Stanley Pons, Prof. University of Utah, Chairman of the Chemistry Department (born 1943, now living in France)
Mother: Curiosity and Luck
Cold Fusion was discovered by Professors Martin Fleishmann and Stanley Pons working at the University of Utah and announced in 1989. This was a BIG DEAL. Their discovery was announced around the world. Everyone realized the importance. People predicted that the pollution being caused by oil extraction and transport could be eliminated. Nuclear accidents would no longer be a worry. We now know that if this clean energy had been developed 31 years ago, future global warming would have been reduced. As result, the rejection has had serious consequences to the future of civilization.
Fleischmann, M.; Pons, S.; Hawkins, M. Electrochemically induced nuclear fusion of deuterium. J. Electroanal. Chem. 1989, 261, 301.
I was working at LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) at the time. The laboratory was attempting to develop fission power for use in space, which is a very difficult problem. In fact, having sufficient power for extended space travel is still a problem. The power produced by cold fusion could be the ideal solution. As result, people at Los Alamos became very exited. Dozens of people stopped their normal work and attempted to replicate what Fleischmann and Pons claimed. I was able to make tritium and then excess energy using their method. Both studies were published in a peer reviewed scientific journal.
Storms, E. K.; Talcott, C. L. Electrolytic tritium production. Fusion Technol. 1990, 17, 680.
Storms, E. K. Measurements of excess heat from a Pons-Fleischmann-type electrolytic cell using palladium sheet. Fusion Technol. 1993, 23, 230
Response of the Scientific Community
LANL/DOE Workshop of Cold Fusion Phenomenon, Santa Fe NM May 23-25, 1989
NSF/EPRI Workshop on Anomalous Effects in Deuterated Metals, Washington D.C. October 16-18, 1989
A workshop was held in Santa Fe in May for interested people from all over the US and from several other countries to plan how best to study cold fusion. Another larger workshop was held in Washington in October. There some of the results were discussed. As you can see, the scientific community was mobilizing to investigate this unusual nuclear process.
As expected, many efforts failed and many people were skeptical of the claim – for good reason. Nevertheless, work was underway with an open mind to determine what was real and what was not.
Response of the US Government
But then people involved in the extraction and use of oil took notice. They realized they would be put out of business if cold fusion were made useful. In addition, people who were trying to harness fusion using a different and more complex method, called hot fusion, realized they might suffer the same fate. So, H. W. Bush, an oil-man and president at the time, asked the DOE (Department of Energy) to look into the reality of the claim.
First review was in November 1989, called the Energy Research Advisory Board, Cold Fusion Panel.
A committee was assembled of about 22 people, most who had no understanding of the subject and no interest, but had important positions. The co-chairman, John Huizenga, ran the show and wrote
the report. When the other co-chairman, Norman Ramsey, read the report, he was appalled by the obvious bias and threatened to resign if changes were not made. The changes were made but had no effect on how the report was understood by everyone.
This review sets the tone for the rejection that continues to this day.
ERAB “Report of the cold fusion panel to the Energy Research Advisory Board,” Department of Energy, DOE/S-0073, 1989
As a result, all work sponsored by the US government stopped as did some work in other countries. As a Japanese scientist told me, if the US DOE says the effect is nonsense, it must be nonsense. That confidence in the opinion of the DOE no longer exists. Work in Japan and in other countries is now underway. Eventual success by these efforts could result in a national security threat to the US. Once again, the rejection by the DOE could have serious future consequences.
Iwamura, Y.; Itoh, T.; Kasagi, J.; Kitamura, A.; Takahashi, A.; Takahashi, K.; Seto, R.; Hatano, T.; Hioki, T.; Motohiro, T.et al. Anomalous Heat Effects Induced by Metal Nano-composites and Hydrogen Gas. J. Cond. Matter. Nucl. Sci. 2019, 29, 119.
Kitamura, A.; Takahashi, A.; Takahashi, K.; Seto, R.; Hatano, T.; Iwamura, Y.; Itoh, T.; Kasagi, J.; Nakamura, M.; Uchimura, M.et al. Excess heat evolution from nanocomposite samples under exposure to hydrogen isotope gases. International J. Hydrogen Energy 2018, 43, 16187.
Iwamura_, Y.; Itohy, T.; Kasagi, J.; Kitamuraz, A.; Takahashi, A.; Takahashi, K. Replication Experiments at Tohoku University on Anomalous Heat Generation Using Nickel-based Binary Nanocomposites and Hydrogen Isotope Gas. JCMNS 2017, 24, 191.
The rejection was so strong and nasty that Pons and family immigrated to France and became French citizens. He and Fleischmann continued their studies there with support from a Japanese company.
Fleischmann, M. Reflections on the sociology of science and social responsibility in science, in relationship to cold fusion. Accountability Res. 2000, 8, 19.
In order to remove any doubt about his opinions, Prof. Huizenga wrote a book entitled “Cold Fusion: The Scientific Fiasco of the Century”. Little did he know at the time the book its self would be the fiasco.
Huizenga, J. R. Cold fusion: The scientific fiasco of the century; second ed.; Oxford University Press: New York, 1993.
The orchestrated and sometimes nasty rejection slowed work but it did not stop it. Many wealthy individuals took notice, realized the importance to mankind, and the profit potential. Also, people like myself who saw the effect continued their studies. In my case, I was able to continue my studies at Los Alamos for another year because the laboratory administration realized the reality and the importance of the discovery even if the DOE did not. I retired after the DOE clamped down on even this small effort.
My wife and I moved to Santa Fe where we built a house with an attached wood-working workshopcold fusion laboratory combination. I continued my studies with support from people who understood the importance of the discovery. Over the years I wrote two books, 10 reviews, close to 100 published papers, and have done experiments involving all aspects of the process. I can say with certainty based on personal experience and on a complete examination of available information, the claimed discovery is real!
Storms, E. A New Source of Energy using Low-Energy Fusion of Hydrogen. Environmental Science : An Indian Journal 2017, 13 (2), 1.
Storms, E. The Present Status of Cold Fusion and its Expected Influence on Science and Technology Innovative Energy Policies 2015, 4 (1).
Storms, E. K. A Students Guide to Cold Fusion, www.LENR.org, 2012.
Storms, E. K. The status of cold fusion (2010). Naturwissenschaften 2010, 97, 861.
Now that 31 years have passed during which thousands of studies have been done in laboratories in at least 12 countries, let’s see what the evidence shows.
What the Science Shows Us
Let’s look first at energy production. The energy is measured as power, i.e. watts, using a calorimeter. Many possible errors have been identified and are now avoided. The so-called excess power cannot result from a prosaic process such as a chemical reaction because the required chemicals are not present or because the magnitude far exceeds any possible chemical reaction.
Histogram of Power Produced by 157 Studies using Pd-D (1989-2006) (Batch sensitive)
This figure shows a histogram in which the number of independent measurements is compared to the power being measured. The excess power is produced by small samples of palladium (about several grams) electrolyzed in D2O. This pattern has continued up to the present time.
Storms, E. Anomalous Energy Produced by PdD. J. Cond. Matter. Nucl. Sci. 2016, 20, 81.
Azizi, O.; El-Boher, A.; He, J.-H.; Hubler, G. K.; Pease, D.; Isaacson, W.; Violante, V.; Gangopadhyay, S. Progress towards understanding anomalous heat effect in metal deuterides. Current Science 2015, 108 (4), 565.
As you can see, most studies report less than a few watts, but a significant number are able to produce much more power. The amount depends on the nature of the Pd, not on its physical form or the treatment. If a piece of Pd is found to produce the effect, most samples taken from that batch will be active. Unfortunately, most batches of Pd are not active. The reason for this difference is only now being understood. As result, the effect can now be produced with much greater confidence.
What kind of nuclear reaction might be the source of the energy?? The only kind of fusion known before cold fusion was the so-called hot fusion. It is called hot because the deuteron must be raise to a very high temperature for fusion to take place, in this case, in plasma. The He4 that results is unstable and fragments two ways, one produces tritium plus a proton and the other produces a neutron plus He3.
Because the neutron is easy to detect, it was one of the first nuclear products sought as a test of the cold fusion claim. No neutrons were detected no matter how hard people looked. The skeptics then used the mantra, “no neutrons, no fusion”.
Nevertheless, tritium was produced and clearly detected. How could tritium be made without neutrons? This question was never answered which allowed the skeptics to ignore this contradiction.
Production of He4 without fragmentation was suggested. This reaction would produce 23.85 MeV of energy. This idea was shot down because the required energetic and deadly gamma emission was clearly not produced. There were no dead graduate students and Fleischmann and Pons were healthy. Besides, momentum could not be conserved without this deadly radiation being emitted, which meant that the helium could not result from fusion. The detected He4 could even be conveniently explained as an air leak because air contains 5.25 ppm of helium.
Morrey, J. R.; Caffee, M. W.; Farrar IV, H.; Hoffman, N. J.; Hudson, G. B.; Jones, R. H.; Kurz, M. D.; Lupton, J.; Oliver, B. M.; Ruiz, B. V.et al. Measurements of helium in electrolyzed palladium. Fusion Technol. 1990, 18, 659.
Nevertheless, people were seeing evidence for He4. The first person to accurately measure the relationship between helium and energy production was Dr. Melvin Miles working at the Naval research center in China Lake. I will show his results later but first let’s look a more recent study with an interesting back-story.
Bush, B. F.; Lagowski, J. J.; Miles, M. H.; Ostrom, G. S. Helium production during the electrolysis of D2O in cold fusion experiments. J. Electroanal. Chem. 1991, 304, 271.
Miles, M.; Bush, B. F.; Ostrom, G. S.; Lagowski, J. J. Second Annual Conference on Cold Fusion, “The Science of Cold Fusion”, Como, Italy, 1991; p 363.
Miles, M. H.; Hollins, R. A.; Bush, B. F.; Lagowski, J. J.; Miles, R. E. Correlation of excess power and helium production during D2O and H2O electrolysis using palladium cathodes. J. Electroanal. Chem. 1993, 346, 99.
Miles, M.; Bush, B. F.; Lagowski, J. J. Anomalous effects involving excess power, radiation, and helium production during D2O electrolysis using palladium cathodes. Fusion Technol. 1994, 25, 478.
Les Case was a catalyst chemist who had the idea that a chemical catalyst might initiate the cold fusion process. So, he had friends at United Catalyst prepare a typical catalyst with palladium on charcoal. Gradually they discovered how to make excess energy and helium. Les was looking forward to making money by using the free energy to purify sea-water that he would use to irrigate barren land in Australia. He would then make his money selling the land, thus avoiding all the problems associated with the reputation of cold fusion.
He ordered a large batch of the catalyst. Much to his dismay, the material was dead. The reason was soon discovered. During a clean up, the company had thrown away the barrel of charcoal being used to make his material. This was special charcoal made from coconuts grown on an island in the Pacific. Apparently, the many extra elements in this material were important.
Case, L. The 9th International Conference on Cold Fusion, Condensed Matter Nuclear Science, Tsinghua Univ., Beijing, China, 2002; p 22.
Case, L. C. The Seventh International Conference on Cold Fusion, Vancouver, Canada, 1998; p 48.
Case, L. C. The reality of ‘cold fusion’. Fusion Technol. 1991, 20, 478.
Case, L. COPRODUCTION OF ENERGY AND HELIUM FROM D2, WO 97/43768, USA, 1997.
Meanwhile, Les had sent some of the active material to Michael McKubre at SRI for him to test. Mike had a very high-resolution mass spectrometer that allowed him to measure He4 in the presence of D2 gas. Mike designed a calorimeter that allowed him to measure excess power and helium at the same time while the material was heated at 250° C in D2 gas, according to Les’s instructions. The graph on the right shows how the excess energy and helium increased over a 20 day period. Note the reaction was slow to start and then became more rapid.
The graph on the left shows the relationship between helium and excess energy. As you can see, the values all fall on the same straight line even after the helium content in the gas exceeded the concentration in air. Consequently, the helium did not come from air. Also, the straight line has a slope consistent with the energy/He4 ratio produced by the D+D fusion reaction.
McKubre, M. C. H. Tenth International Conference on Cold Fusion, Cambridge, MA, 2003. 16
McKubre, M. C. 14th International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science, Washington DC, 2008; p 673.
McKubre, M. C.; Tanzella, F. Cold fusion, LENR, CMNS, FPE: One perspective on the state of the science based on measurements made at SRI. J. Cond. Matter Nucl. Sci. 2011, 4, 32.
If the values obtain by Miles are combined with three other independent studies that also used the electrolytic method to react Pd with D2O, this relationship is produced. The distribution of values shows the average He/energy ratio is nearly equal to ½ of the value expected if the reaction were D+D=He4. This difference is expected because only the helium in the evolving gas was measured. Some helium would have remained in the Pd metal, which was not measured.
Nevertheless, the agreement between the measurement and the required value is close enough to make this behavior the smoking gun.
Besides, the shape of the distribution is consistent with a normal Gaussian error function. In other words, the measurements are consistent with the occurrence of the same nuclear reaction having an expected amount of random error. Such consistency could not result from only experimental error.
Gozzi, D.; Caputo, R.; Cignini, P. L.; Tomellini, M.; Gigli, G.; Balducci, G.; Cisbani, E.; Frullani, S.; Garibaldi, F.; Jodice, M.et al. Fourth International Conference on Cold Fusion, Lahaina, Maui, 1993; p 6.
Bush, B. F.; Lagowski, J. J. The Seventh International Conference on Cold Fusion, Vancouver, Canada, 1998; p 38.
DeNinno, A.; Frattolillo, A.; Rizzo, A.; Del Gindice, E. Tenth International Conference on Cold Fusion, Cambridge, MA, 2003; p 133.
DeNinno, A.; Frattolillo, A.; Rizzo, A.; Del Giudice, E. In ASTI-5; www.iscmns.org/: Asti, Italy, 2004.
Miles, M. Tenth International Conference on Cold Fusion, Cambridge, MA, 2003; p 123.
Tritium is another nuclear product that should not be produced according to the skeptics. Here are two examples of tritium being made by two different methods used at LANL. Dozens of other examples have been reported by other laboratories.
Storms, E. K. The science of low energy nuclear reaction; World Scientific: Singapore, 2007.
Tom Claytor subjected a small cathode of various alloys to low-voltage gas discharge while measuring the tritium in real time in the circulating D2 gas. The voltage is too small to produce the hot fusion reaction as he determined by the absence of measured neutrons. You can see an example of what happens when no plasma is present and when a dead alloy is used. The active alloy clearly produced tritium. He tested dozens of alloys and found some made much more tritium than others. Again the reaction was batch dependent. Tom continued his work at LANL until the DOE forced him to stop. He then set up a private laboratory near his home where he continued to study this and other methods to cause the cold fusion reaction.
Claytor, T. N.; Fowler, M. M. In 12th International Workshop on Anomalies in Hydrogen Loaded Metals Italy, 2017.
Claytor, T. N.; Fowler, M. M.; Storms, E. K.; Cantwell, R. In Space Technology & Applications International Forum Albuquerque NM, 2016
Claytor, T. N.; Schwab, M. J.; Thoma, D. J.; Teter, D. F.; Tuggle, D. G. The
Seventh International Conference on Cold Fusion, Vancouver, Canada, 1998; p 88.
Claytor, T. N.; Jackson, D. D.; Tuggle, D. G. Tritium production from a low voltage deuterium discharge of palladium and other metals. J. New Energy 1996, 1 (1), 111.
Claytor, T. N.; Jackson, D. D.; Tuggle, D. G. Tritium production from low voltage deuterium discharge on palladium and other metals. Infinite Energy 1996, 2 (7), 39.
Claytor, T. N.; Tuggle, D. G.; Taylor, S. F. Third International Conference on Cold Fusion, “Frontiers of Cold Fusion”, Nagoya Japan, 1992; p 217.
The other graph compares two cells that Carol Talcott, later to become Carol Storms, studied at LANL using the electrolytic method. Two identical cells were run at the same time in the same location, with one making tritium and the other not. The study was able to show the tritium was not initially in the Pd and did not come from the environment. Production of tritium was delayed for 3 days, continued for about 20 days then stopped. This behavior is typical of all of the many published reports of tritium production.
Storms, E. K.; Talcott, C. L. Electrolytic tritium production. Fusion Technol. 1990, 17, 680.
Packham, N. J. C.; Wolf, K. L.; Wass, J. C.; Kainthla, R. C.; Bockris, J. O. M. Production of tritium from D2O electrolysis at a palladium cathode. J. Electroanal. Chem. 1989, 270, 451.
Hodko, D.; Bockris, J. Possible excess tritium production on Pd codeposited with deuterium. J. Electroanal. Chem. 1993, 353, 33.
Iyengar, P. K.; Srinivasan, M.; Sikka, S. K.; Shyam, A.; Chitra, V.; Kulkarni, L. V.; Rout, R. K.; Krishnan, M. S.; Malhotra, S. K.; Gaonkar, D. G.et al. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre studies on cold fusion. Fusion Technol. 1990, 18, 32.
When tritium (T) and neutrons (n) are measured at the same time, a rough correlation is found that centers on a T/n ratio of about 106. This is shown using a histogram of the number of independent measurements plotted against the log of the T/n ratio. The value produced by the hot fusion process can be seen on the left.
Srinivasan, M. Observation of neutrons and tritium in the early BARC cold fusion experiments. Current Science 2015, 108 (4), 619.
In other words, although the ratio does not match the value produced by hot fusion, neutrons seem to result from a process influenced by the tritium content. This behavior adds one more clue about the nature of the fusion process.
Several studies show that tritium production requires a mixture of D and H. However, if these two isotopes were to fuse, He3 would be the expected product. Tritium would result only if an electron were added during the process. So, we apparently have another clue about the nature of the fusion process.
Romodanov, V. A.; Savin, V. I.; Skuratnik, Y. B.; Majorov, V. N. Sixth International Conference on Cold Fusion, Progress in New Hydrogen Energy, Lake Toya, Hokkaido, Japan, 1996; p 340.
Claytor, T. N.; Fowler, M. M. In 12th International Workshop on Anomalies in Hydrogen Loaded Metals Italy, 2017.
And now the plot thickens and tests whether you actually have an open mind. The process has been found by many people to produce what is called transmutation. This is a reaction during which one or more hydrogen nuclei are added to other elements, thereby causing production of a new element. Such reactions are even more difficult to justify and explain than fusion because of the huge Coulomb barrier. Apparently, fusion must occur in order to provide the energy and fusion product that is then added to a nearby nucleus. We will see more evidence for this conclusion shortly.
This figure shows one kind of transmutation reaction that results in addition of several D to Pd or Pt followed by fission of the product to produce two smaller nuclei. These two smaller nuclei result in the two populations you can see on the left. This behavior implies that the fusion process can involve atoms that happen to be near where fusion is taking place. In addition, the resulting nuclear reaction can be novel and unexpected.
Srinivasan, M.; Miley, G.; Storms, E. K. In Nuclear Energy Encyclopedia:
Science, Technology, and Applications; Krivit, S.;Lehr, J. H.;Kingery, T. B.,
Eds.; John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken, NJ, 2011.
Miley, G.; Shrestha, P. In ACS Symposium Series 998, Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions Sourcebook; Marwan, J.;Krivit, S. B., Eds.; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2008.
But the plot thickens even more. Researchers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan explored transmutation using a sandwich of CaO (calcium oxide) and Pd (palladium). You can see a magnified cross-section on the right. When they caused D2 gas to diffuse through this layer, excess energy was produced. Even more amazing, when they deposited various elements on the exposed Pd surface, these were transmuted in unexpected ways.
Iwamura, Y.; Itoh, T.; Yamazaki, N.; Yonemura, H.; Fukutani, K.; Sekiba, D. Recent advances in deuterium permeation transmutation experiments. J. Cond. Matter Nucl. Sci. 2013, 10, 63.
Iwamura, Y.; itoh, T.; Terada, Y.; Ishikawa, T. Transmutation reactions induced by deuterium permeation through nano-structured Pd multilayer thin film. Trans. Amer. Nucl. Soc. 2012, 107, 422.
Iwamura, Y.; Itoh, T.; Yamazaki, N.; Kasagi, J.; Terada, Y.; Ishikawa, T.; Sekiba, D.; Yonemura, H.; Fukutani, K. Observation of low energy nuclear
transmutation reactions induced by deuterium permeation through multilayer Pd and CaO thin film. J. Cond. Matter Nucl. Sci. 2011, 4, 132.
Iwamura, Y.; Sakano, M.; Itoh, T. Elemental analysis of Pd complexes: effects of D2 gas permeation. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. A 2002, 41 (7), 4642.
Iwamura, Y.; Itoh, T.; Gotoh, N.; Toyoda, I. Detection of anomalous elements, X- ray, and excess heat in a D2-Pd system and its interpretation by the electron-Induced nuclear reaction model. Fusion Technol. 1998, 33, 476.
Their initial study involved applying cesium to the Pd surface by vapor deposition. They found that praseodymium was produced. Using in-situ XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy), they were able to show that the cesium concentration decreased as the amount of praseodymium increased. No other nuclear products were detected.
Apparently, two He4 or four D enter the nucleus of cesium all at the same time. Attempts to replicate the claim at NRL (Naval Research Laboratory) failed but were successful at another independent laboratory in Japan. This work has continued and the claims have become even better supported by the evidence. Then they deposited other elements with the results shown in the table. Apparently, as many as three He4 nuclei can be added simultaneously to another nearby nucleus, with the number depending on the nature of target element. Once again, we are given clues about the very strange mechanism causing cold fusion. Once again we are forced to consider the impossible.
But Nature is not finished with producing amazing behavior. For many years, various studies have suggested that living cells can also produce transmutation. Naturally, this claim was soundly rejected.
Kervran, C. L. Transmutations biologiques, metabolismes aberrants de l’asote, le potassium et le magnesium. Librairie Maloine S. A, Paris 1963.
Komaki, H. Production de proteins par 29 souches de microorganismes et augmentation du potassium en milieu de culture sodique sans potassium. Revue de Pathologie Comparee 1967, 67, 213.
Kervran, C. L. Biological transmutations; Swan House Publishing Co., 1972.
Biberian, J.-P. Biological transmutations. Current Science 2015, 108 (4), 633.
Nevertheless, workers in Ukraine decided to explore this idea. They used a well-known kind of yeast as the living cell, to which they added D2O and manganese 55. The intent was to determine if iron 57 would be produced. They used the Mossbauer effect to detect the iron 57 isotope.
In case you are not familiar with this method, when Fe57 results from k-capture (an electron from the k electron shell enters the nucleus) of Co57, which is a conventional nuclear reaction, the resulting gamma can be absorbed by another Fe57 nucleus if the energy state of the target atom exactly matches the energy of the gamma. The energy of the gamma is matched to the absorbing Fe57 energy-state by changing the relative velocity between the emitter and the target atom.
The figures show the amount of adsorption as the relative velocity is changed. The graph on the left shows no reduction in gamma intensity when H2O is used and when manganese is absent. When manganese and D2O are both present, the gamma is absorbed, which shows that Fe57 was produced. Eventually, they were able to make the process very robust, with the result shown on the right. Clearly, a deuteron can be added to a manganese nucleus to produce iron 57. Nothing else would result in absorption of the radiation.
You might ask why the yeast would want to make iron out of manganese. I will leave this question as a homework assignment.
Vysotskii, V.; Kornilova, A. A. Low-energy nuclear reactions and transmutation of stable and radioactive isotopes in growing biological systems. J. Cond. Matter Nucl. Sci. 2011, 4, 146.
Vysotskii, V.; Tashyrev, A. B.; Kornilova, A. A. In ACS Symposium Series 998, Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions Sourcebook; Marwan, J.;Krivit, S. B., Eds.; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2008.
Vysotskii, V.; Kornilova, A. A.; Samoylenko, I. I. Experimental discovery and investigation of the phenomenon of nuclear transmutation of isotopes in growing biological cultures. Infinite Energy 1996, 2 (10), 63.
Vysotskii, V.; Odintsov, A.; Pavlovich, V. N.; Tashirev, A.; Kornilova, A. A. 11th International Conference on Cold Fusion, Marseilles, France, 2004; p 530.
Now they asked, what would happen if the target isotope were radioactive? Would the transmutation reaction change the decay rate?
They tested this idea by placing cesium 137, a common radioactive product of the fission reaction, in their yeast culture. They found that the effective decay rate was increased up to 35 times. The figure shows the measured reduction in activity as a function of time when other elements were added to the mixture. The designation MCT means a culture that was found to be especially active. As your can see, the presence of certain elements made the loss of Cs137 more rapid because some Cs was transmuted to a 30 stable element, thereby making less Cs available to decay. An obvious use would be to accelerate the natural decontamination at Chernobyl.
Vysotskii, V. I.; Kornilova, A. A. Microbial transmutation of Cs-137 and LENR in growing biological systems. Current Science 2015, 108 (4), 636.
Vysotskii, V.; Kornilova, A. A. Nuclear fusion and transmutation of isotopes in biological systems; MIR Publishing House, Russia 302, 2003.
Up to now, I have avoided discussing the radiation that must result from the nuclear process in order for the energy to be dissipated and turned into heat in the calorimeter. The radiation is also required to conserve momentum. Once again, the cold fusion process confounds explanation because very little radiation is detected outside of the apparatus. This is good news for the health of the experimenter but bad news for the effort to understand the process. What is worse, the radiation that is detected is highly variable and sometimes very unusual. Consequently, this question is too complex to answer here.
Nevertheless, radiation is emitted and detected, as is required. However, it does not have the large expected energy.
Now I would like to show some actual data and what it implies. Here is a plot of the log excess power vs 1/T. This is a typical Arrhenius plot that
allows the activation energy for a reaction to be determined.
Storms, E. K., unpublished, 2020
The excess power was produced by a 0.5 g sample of Pd that had been activated and then reacted with deuterium at 20° C using electrolysis. Excess power was produced immediately after the Pd had reacted with deuterium and the sample was heated. The long delay experienced by other studies did not occur.
The red squares were produced while 0.1 A was applied to the cathode. This held the D/Pd ratio constant at PdD0.85. You can see that all the values fall nicely on a straight line.
The other values resulted when this current was turned off. This allowed D to be lost. The resulting D/Pd ratios measured before and after each temperature study are shown. As you can see, the excess power was not changed by the ratio changing from 0.85 to 0.46. Other studies showed no change even when the ratio was reduced to 0.16. Consequently, we can conclude that once the nuclear reaction starts, it is not influenced by the concentration of D in the material.
However, the temperature clearly has a large effect on the rate of energy production. The slope of the line between 30° and 90° C can be used to calculate an energy of activation for the rate limiting process. This activation energy is 28.7 KJ/mole. Using this value, we can determine the mechanism that limits the rate of the nuclear reaction.
Simple logic requires the deuterium that is converted to helium at a particular location to be replaced. This deuterium must come from the
surrounding physical structure. The rate of transport through a structure is determined by the diffusion constant. If the log diffusion
constant of D through PdD0.85 is plotted vs 1/T, the activation energy for diffusion can be determined. The activation energy for diffusion is found to be 28.0 KJ/mol. This value is consistent with the activation energy that limits the nuclear process within experimental error.
In addition, every sample studied showed the same activation energy regardless of the total amount of power being produced. Consequently, the rate of power production above about 30° C seems to be determined by how fast deuterium can diffuse through the lattice and replace D being converted to helium.
This graph also shows a change in the effect of temperature below about 30° C. I can propose an explanation for this behavior, but this would require too much time and require you to understand the mechanism I have proposed to explain all observed behavior. Unfortunately, we do not have time to discuss this idea.
Storms, E. How Basic Behavior of LENR can Guide A Search for an Explanation. JCMNS 2016, 20, 100.
Storms, E. How the explanation of LENR can be made consistent with observed behavior and natural laws. Current Science 2015, 108 (4), 531.
Storms, E. K. The explanation of low energy nuclear reaction; Infinite Energy Press: Concord, NH, 2014.
Eight general behaviors describe the behavior of the nuclear process. These behaviors can be used to prove without a doubt that nuclear reactions of several unusual kinds can take place in a chemical environment without application of enough energy to overcome the Coulomb barrier in the normal way. The behaviors can also be used to create a model to describe the process. The process is clearly very unusual and not consistent with how conventional nuclear processes are found to behave. Consequently, a new kind of nuclear interaction must be considered, instead of rejecting the evidence because it conflicts with what is known.
THE REJECTION WAS AND IS A HUGE MISTAKE!!
I can’t emphasis this enough.
Two basic facts have now been demonstrated.
As Arthur C. Clarke said, “Ignoring cold fusion is one of the greatest scandals in the history of science”. This comment still applies.
Clarke, A. C. 2001: The coming age of hydrogen power. Infinite Energy 1998, 4 (22), 15
The only challenge remaining is to understand the process well enough to make it useful.
I have written two books that summarize the observations and explanations. These are out of print but can be obtained from Amazon and World Scientific in digital form.
Storms, E.K., The Explanation of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction, 2014
Storms, E.K., The Science of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction, 2007
More information can be obtained from these sources.
A digital library containing many of the papers about cold fusion is administered by Jed Rothwell and is available on the Internet at http://lenr.org/
A peer-reviewed digital journal was created to make papers about cold fusion available because such papers are commonly rejected by other journals. This journal is edited by Jean-Paul Biberian and called J. Condensed Matter Nuclear Science. JCMNS now has 32 volumes.
Copies of many papers from the twenty-two ICCF conferences can be found at LENR.org.
Thank you for showing interest. I also want to thank my computer, the Internet, and the great skill and patience of Tom Valone for making this talk possible.
I would be glad to answer any questions.
A .pdf of this presentation is available here:
Copyright by Edmund Storms August 2019. May be quoted freely with attribution.
Relationship between the burnishing process used by Mizuno
and the Storms theory of NAE formation [.pdf] by Edmund Storms Kiva Labs, Santa Fe, NM (8/1/19)
INTRODUCTION
Mizuno [1] has applied Pd to Ni mesh by burnishing and claimed to make excess energy by heating the material in D2 gas. This method is expected to produce the conditions predicted by Storms to cause LENR. The relationship between the burnishing method and the Storms theory of LENR is described as well as several testable predictions.
DISCUSSION
The LENR process involves two separate and independent events, one involving a common chemical process and the other caused by a unique nuclear process. The first event creates a condition in the material in which the nuclear process can function. Without this condition being present, the nuclear process cannot take place. But once this special condition forms, the nuclear process occurs without further delay. The difficulty in causing the LENR process results from failure to create this required special condition.
According to the Storms’ theory[2], this special condition, called the NAE (Nuclear Active Environment), consists of physical gaps having dimensions of a few nanometers between the atomic planes. Such gaps can be formed in many different ways, but up to the present time they have resulted when stress is relieved at random sites within the physical structure. The stress is created when the material, usually palladium, reacts with isotopes of hydrogen, thereby causing expansion. Removal of the hydrogen causes contraction, during which time most of the gaps (cracks) form. This counter intuitive conclusion results because the expansion resulting during reaction with hydrogen produces mainly compressive stress, which on average would not produce gaps. Removal of hydrogen produces contraction that results in the kind of stress required to produce gaps. Consequently, according to the Storms model, the Pd must experience deloading at one time during the study for LENR to be triggered.[3] Once formed, the NAE seems to be stable for long periods of time.
After a gap forms, generally at a grain boundary, the local stress can be relieved most easily by making the gap wider rather than by causing other gaps to form. This natural tendency causes the initial small gaps to grow wider and form what can be clearly seen as cracks rather than remain small enough to cause LENR. This process results because less energy is required to move atoms further apart once the atomic bond as been broken than is required to break the bond in the first place. Nature will always take the path of least resistance. This conventional process explains why LENR is not initiated even though many cracks are clearly observed.
The amount of overall dimensional change, hence amount of stress, is related to the amount of hydrogen that reacts, thereby causing an apparent relationship between the maximum D/Pd ratio achieved by the material and the amount of excess energy resulting from formation of numerous gaps.[4] Although, palladium is normally used to form the required gaps, which is the example used in this paper, other materials can be expected to experience the same process and consequently produce LENR.
The greater the number of gaps having the required dimension, the greater the overall rate of LENR. Because suitable gaps are rarely produced in conventional materials, the challenge is to modify the material such that a large number of independent small gaps can form during loss of hydrogen or by other means. The application of Pd to a Ni surface by the burnishing process, as used by Mizuno, achieves this requirement in two ways.
The first requirement is achieved because Pd is applied an amorphous form. Upon reaction with hydrogen, this non-crystalline structure would convert to the fcc structure at many independent sites. We can expect the resulting stress to cause many isolated gaps to form within the Pd layer. Additional gaps (cracks) would form at the Pd-Ni interface as result of the Pd expanding more than the Ni because the Pd reacts to a much greater extent than does Ni. Of great importance is that each of these processes takes place at many independent sites, with the stress not focused on only a few sites as is normally the case.
The second requirement involves the small particles of NiO that would be removed from the Ni surface and mixed with the Pd layer. A gap would be expected to form between the surrounding Pd metal and this inert inclusion, as hydrogen is lost from the structure.
If this description were correct, it would be expected to apply to all Pd found to produce LENR. I predict that commercial Pd observed to support LENR contains similar unintended inclusions that remain in the metal after the refining process and were not altered when the metal was formed into wire or sheet. Consequently, most pieces of the batch are found to produce LENR regardless of the final form created by physical means. This behavior explains why some batches of commercial Pd produce LENR for no obvious reason.
As an example, Fleischmann has described how boron is added to the molten Pd during the purification process to remove oxygen by formation of insoluble boron oxide, which floats to the surface and is physically removed. In view of the Storms model, the small pieces of oxide scattered throughout would make the Pd eventually nuclear active rather than the absence of oxygen.
EXPERIMENTAL
The burnishing process was explored by rubbing a Pd rod against a 1 mm thick piece of Ni (1 cm x 2 cm) that had been previously electroplated with Pd. No NiO would be expected to be present on the Ni surface. As shown in Fig. 1, the amount of Pd transferred from the rod to the Ni was a linear function of the number of strokes after the first 50 strokes. In other words, each stroke transferred the same amount of Pd. The surface acquired a smooth bright metallic appearance where the rubbing had been applied. Fig. 2 shows islands of Pd, some of which appear to be poorly attached. This sample will be studied to determine what happens during reaction with D in the absence of included NiO.
FIGURE 1. Weight gain of the Ni sheet as result of pressing the edge of a Pd rod against the surface and moving it across the full length of the Ni plate. Each stroke was made at a random location on the surface so that most of the surface was eventually burnished with Pd.
FIGURE 2. SEM picture of a surface to which Pd was applied using the burnishing method. The Ni had been previously electroplated with Pd. Notice the islands of Pd. By eye, the surface looked polished and reflective where the burnishing had been applied.
A second sample of Ni was flame heated to about 800° C to form a visible (blue color) oxide layer after which it was burnished in the same way as the first sample. Although the blue color was removed to produce a bright metallic surface, no detectable weight increase (±0.00005 g) was produced after 600 strokes. Apparently the nature of the Ni surface affects the amount of Pd transferred to the surface. Consequently, the condition of the surface is revealed as being another important variable. This condition needs to be explored.
Any material that is not firmly attached to the surface would be expected to be pushed aside by the burnishing process and not be included in the Pd layer.
These samples will be first studied using electrolytic loading to determine how the Pd layer affects the uptake of D into the Ni using methods previously described.[5] The production of excess energy will be studied up to 85° C in D2O. If energy is detected, the samples will be studied in D2 gas up to 350°C.
CONCLUSIONS
Replicating exactly the procedure used by Mizuno is not as important as replicating what Mizuno caused. If he actually caused LENR, this result could be produced many different ways, as is typical of all natural phenomenon including LENR. Identifying the important variables becomes important so that the resulting LENR process can be replicated at will with total control. Some of these variables are suggested below as predictions. If these suggested methods cause LENR, this would provide further evidence that the NAE suggested by Storms is correct.
Although Storms also proposed a mechanism for the nuclear process, this part of the theory is not important when trying to create the conditions initiating the nuclear process because once the NAE forms, the nuclear process starts without any further knowledge or effort being required. Consequently, learning how to make and control the production of the NAE is the only important knowledge needed to cause and use LENR. Absence of this knowledge has been the reason for general rejection and why the various efforts have failed to make useful energy.
PREDICTIONS
References
(1) Mizuno, T. and J. Rothwell Increased Excess Heat from Palladium Deposited on Nickel (Preprint) in The 22nd International Conference for Condensed Matter Nuclear Science ICCF-22. 2019. Assisi, Italy. http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/MizunoTincreasede.pdf, https://www.lenrcanr.org/acrobat/MizunoTsupplement.pdf
(2) Storms, E. How Basic Behavior of LENR can Guide A Search for an Explanation. JCMNS 2016, 20, 100.
Storms, E. K. A Theory of LENR Based on Crack Formation. Infinite Energy 2013, 19 (112), 24.
Storms, E. K. An Explanation of Low-energy Nuclear Reactions (Cold Fusion). J.Cond. Matter Nucl. Sci. 2012, 9, 85.
(3) Storms, E. Anomalous Energy Produced by PdD. JCMNS 2016, 20, 81.
(4) McKubre, M. C. H.; Crouch-Baker, S.; Riley, A. M.; Smedley, S. I.; Tanzella, F. L. Third International Conference on Cold Fusion, “Frontiers of Cold Fusion”, Held at: Nagoya Japan, 1992; p 5.
Castagna, E.; Sansovini, M.; Lecci, S.; Rufoloni, A.; Sarto, F.; Violante, V.; Knies, D.; Grabowski, K. S.; Hubler, G. K.; McKubre, M. C.et al. 14th International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science, Washington, DC, 2008; p 444.
(5) Storms, E. In ICCF-21 Fort Collins, CO, 2018.
Relationship between the burnishing process used by Mizuno
and the Storms theory of NAE formation [.pdf] by Edmund Storms Kiva Labs, Santa Fe, NM (8/1/19)
The search for the Nuclear Active Environment, the set of material conditions that causes LENR is a now a thirty-year pursuit and condensed matter nuclear scientists still debate where exactly the reaction takes place in the material to generate heat and transmutations.
To this day, few agree, and yet, without knowing the location of the reaction, engineering efforts are stymied in finding a recipe that both initiates and scale the effects.
Undoubtedly, the sheer number of LENR effects adds confusion. Is there one LENR mechanism able to explain all the different observable phenomenon? The preponderance of LENR models and theories certainly challenges this idea.
“Nature would not go about creating a variety of mechanisms to cause something so extraordinary and so rare,” says Edmund Storms. “Indeed, nature is known to be very stingy in finding the fewest number of ways of doing something and getting the job done. It’s called Occam’s Razor. The idea is that the simplest explanation is probably the more correct one.”
Dr. Edmund Storms spoke about the search for the NAE – and more – with Ruby Carat on the Cold Fusion Now! podcast.
Listen to Special Guest Edmund Storms on the Cold Fusion Now! podcast here.
“It’s very obvious that some unusual characteristic of the material has to exist in which the nuclear reaction will occur, and that particular condition is rarely formed. That’s what makes LENR so difficult to reproduce,” says Dr. Storms. “It’s really difficult to create the unique condition on purpose, especially if you don’t know what it is – with there being a number of conditions that would qualify. “
Super Abundant Vacancies as the NAE?
The idea of vacancies, places where atoms or nuclei should be but aren’t, is one of these candidates for the NAE. If an empty spot exists in a hydride where hydrogen is missing, perhaps that could be the location of the reaction. A large number of such vacancies might account for the large amount of excess heat energy produced by these system
“People who favor the idea of a vacancy as the NAE find the Super Abundant Vacancy SAV concept particularly attractive because it contains lots of vacancies. The difficulty in creating SAVs is consistent with the difficulty in making cold fusion work”, says Storms.
“Furthermore, Peter Hagelstein, who is a firm advocate of the vacancy idea, has a complicated and highly mathematical description of how a vacancy would achieve a nuclear reaction. So he and his followers of this particular view are encouraged by having a possible structure containing even more vacancies than would normally be present.”
Two types of vacancies in Pd-D
“Vacancies are a characteristic of all materials. But, some materials have the ability to make vacancies of a certain kind, and other materials favor other types of vacancies. The concept of a vacancy is ambiguous”, describes Edmund Storms.
So far, the SAV model has been developed for systems that use the metal palladium and isotopes of hydrogen.
“In palladium-deuteride, which has been studied the most and has the most information, we know of two kinds of vacancies. A vacancy can form in the deuterium sublattice. In other words, positions are present where a deuterium should be located, and there are positions where it should be located but it is not present, which is called a vacancy.”
“Vacancies can also form in the palladium atom positions.”
The figure shows a lattice structure with all the atom positions filled, with the green balls representing palladium.
“The number of vacancies in a material is sensitive to the thermodynamic properties of that material, and the thermodynamic properties are sensitive to temperature, pressure and composition. ”
“So if vacancies were in fact where the action was, then it should be possible, very conveniently and with foreknowledge, to create them in palladium-deuteride, because we know enough about that material and its basic thermodynamic and crystallographic properties to know how to create vacancies.”
“Unfortunately, that information does not allow the cold fusion reaction to be caused with any reliability. In fact, no relationship seems to exist between the presence of vacancies, which can be determined, and whether or not excess energy can be made.”
“So there’s no proof,” says Storms, “there’s no feedback from nature to show you that particular viewpoint is correct.”
Just having vacancies in palladium deuteride does not guarantee LENR. Something else is required.
“The cold fusion reaction has been found to occur in a variety of materials, not just palladium-deuteride. Those materials have entirely different characteristics involving the ability to make vacancies. These vacancies seem to have no relationship to the ones in the palladium-deuteride. Yet, we still see the same nuclear effects.“
“We have to be very careful in imagining where this nuclear reaction actually occurs. In palladium, the reaction only occurs very near the surface when electrolysis is used. However, the surface region of the palladium cathode is not pure palladium. It’s a very complex alloy and is also very complex metalgraphically. So, a lot is going on in the material without a relationship to how people imagine palladium to behave.”
When analyzing palladium-deuteride theoretically, Edmund Storms says that “People don’t realize they’re not looking at something ideal as is described in the literature. They’re looking at a moving target. They’re looking at material that’s changed every time they do something to it. “
“Every time palladium is reacted with hydrogen or deuterium, then remove, and react again, the material is changed. The characteristics are changed – thermodynamically, the shape, the size, the hardness- they’re all different. So how can a moving target be studied?”
Dr. Storms believes no correlation exists between the various materials producing LENR and the presence of vacancies because he sees no physical evidence relating vacancies with LENR.
“The idea of vacancies simply does not fit with the way this reaction behaves.”
“On the other hand, one characteristic that is universal and would fit is cracks or gaps in the structure. Those are totally universal and a correlation between their presence and LENR can be seen, so that’s where I focus my attention.”
Evidence for nano-cracks is universal
After years of experimental work, Dr. Storms became frustrated by failure, and wanted a direction for research. He looked to the theoretical models for guidance. Sadly, little of the mathematical machinations could tether to the reality of experimental procedure.
“I needed a guide to figure out how to treat a material to encourage it to produce the LENR effect, so I looked around at the various suggested unique features of a material, trying to figure out which one might be important.”
“After a considerable amount of trial-and-error, and logical deduction, I came to the conclusion that the only feature that made any sense were cracks.”
In 2014, Edmund Storms published The Explanation of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction An Examination of the Relationship Between Observation and Explanation, a book surveying the theories proposed to model LENR with critiques that systematically matched experimental evidence to each model’s conclusions. Together with logical deduction in thermodynamical arguments, he appraised their viability. In the end, he proposed one of his own models developed primarily from LENR observational data.
See article on Progress Report #6
When the right-sized nano-crack forms in Pd-D, Dr. Storms imagines “the hydrogen atoms would try to go into these cracks and fill them, and there would be a chemical relationship created between the deuterons occupying this crack.
“And then the question is, what would that chemical interaction do from a nuclear point of view.” Following the logic, Storms bumped up against the unknown.
“I was encouraged to believe that once this chemical structure formed, which could be described as a linear molecule of deuterons stuck together, one after another, this would start to resonate and the resonance would move the nuclei closer together periodically. “
“As the distance shorted, the nuclei in the molecule would suddenly discover they were on the way to a fusion reaction – not all the way, but with a possibility that energy could be released from their nucleus if they just did a couple things we don’t yet understand at this point.”
Storms’ idea of a nano-space filled with hydrogen creating some unique type of chemical structure is not far-fetched. Nano-technologies have uncovered many strange new phenomenon, where quantum effects are prominent and little understood. In this case, a linear hydrogen molecule is proposed to resonate to some stimulus, and engage in a new nuclear process of a gradually progressive fusion.
“I imagineas this structure resonated, the energy would be given off in small bits – not all at once as it is the case for hot fusion. In hot fusion, the energy goes off instantaneously. In cold fusion, the energy would go off slowly. I describe hot fusion as being fast fusion and cold fusion being slow fusion.”
[fvplayer id="1"]See the full documentary HYDROTON A Model of Cold Fusion on the Cold Fusion Now! Youtube page.
Storms believes that slow fusion has been happening all along in various environments, but was overlooked by scientists in early fusion research because everyone was applying energy to the nuclei in order to overcome the Coulomb barrier by brute force, which automatically makes the fusion energy come off instantaneously.
“But within a linear molecule in a nano-gap, this new mechanism could exert itself, and so I imagined a resonance process would initiate a new kind of nuclear reaction. This has always been possible but people never applied the right conditions for it to manifest itself.”
“This new phenomenon of nature might be a good source of energy and, because this is an entirely new kind of nuclear interaction, understanding might be rewarded by a Nobel prize.”
Detectable features of the Hydroton model
Dr. Storms believes the full explanation will be years in the making, and dozens of graduate students will have opportunities to get that prize. For now, finding a mathematical description for an unknown nuclear reaction remains a difficult next step. Conventional science won’t pay attention to the behavior unless a working LENR device is produced or a mathematical framework is accepted as a model.
“At this point I do not know – nor does anybody else know – how to describe the Hydroton model mathematically in a way that would make this acceptable to mainstream scientists.”
Still, some features of Storms’ nano-NAE might provide quantitative parameters. Elaborating on the “slow” fusion process, Storms explains how smaller bits of a nuclei’s mass can turn into energy, and justifies the reasoning with observed experimental data.
“I believe the mass is converted to energy and the energy appears as a photon of a frequency (or wavelength or energy) which is not as large as a normal nuclear reaction would produce, but is large enough so that the energy contained in that photon is able to move away from the source, and be deposited and turned into heat as it passes through matter further away in the apparatus.”
Somehow, resonant nuclei are proposed to lose only a tiny bit of mass as they move closer, with that little bit of mass being converted into two photons going in opposite directions, as is required to conserve momentum. Both photons have enough energy to leave the nano-gap, with the energy being turned into heat elsewhere in the apparatus. But the photons do not have enough energy to leave the apparatus, as evidenced by the lack of radiation detected outside the apparatus.
“We know precisely how the energy of a photon is converted to heat as it passes through matter. That’s well known. And these photons are no different than any other photon, so they just simply pass through matter, and lose energy as photon energy is converted to heat energy, which is called a phonon.”
“Nevertheless, some do have sufficient energy to get to a detector and are detected. A little bit of radiation is in fact seen experimentally. But it is not nearly enough to explain the amount of heat that is being given off. And I argue that’s because 99% of the photons that are made, are absorbed before they get outside to the detector.”
Storms estimates that the photon energy is “probably somewhere around 10keV. When the phonons are very much more energetic than that, they would be detectable.”
While heat is the main LENR effect, transmutation products are also found. Storms requires the Hydroton model to address this LENR effect as well.
Fusion and fission can occur simultaneously
“The linear molecule, that I call a hydroton, can attach itself to other atoms that happen to be nearby, such as impurity atoms that happen to be out of place in the NAE, for example in the crack with other debris.“
“When the fusion reaction takes place, those other nuclei that are attached chemically to the Hydroton experience ambiguity about their nuclear state. The energy being generated by the fusion reaction is re-directed to force one or more of these hydrogen nuclei into the nuclei of this attached atom. In other words, fusion precedes and is required for transmutation to take place.”
Talking about the Pd-D systems, Storms says, “Normally, palladium contains some platinum. But after the LENR reaction has occurred over a period of time, many other elements are present as well. A couple of these elements are heavier than palladium. Obviously something has gone into the palladium nucleus and stayed there. “
“On the other hand, most of these nuclear products are lighter than palladium, but when the weights of two of these products are added, the sum nearly equals the weight of palladium. In other words, the Pd nucleus seems to have split into two unequal parts after some D or H have been added to the nucleus.”
“It’s fascinating that this is a combination of fusion and fission taking place simultaneously in the material. That’s an entirely new concept in its own right. ”
But Storms believes that “this process requires fusion of hydrogen to provide the energy to overcome the Coulomb barrier, which would stand in the way of such a thing happening normally.”
All of the hydrogen isotopes (protons, deuterons, and tritons) will all fuse with each other. The mechanism that causes fusion is the same in each case, but the nuclear products of each of those reactions if different. Likewise, the transmutation products are all different but the same mechanism causes the process.
Testing LENR models requires a reaction to work
The only way to determine whether or not SAVs or nano-cracks are where the reaction takes place is to test the ideas. However, testing LENR theories requires the ability to make a reaction happen on demand, and that difficulty is part of the problem in determining which model fits best.
Says Edmund Storms, “To learn, the reaction needs to happen. Negative results aren’t very useful because millions of events can cause the reaction not to occur. Only a couple conditions may be required to make it work. So, when the reaction doesn’t happen, which of the many ways failure might be caused is difficult to identify. There are just too many of them.”
“But if it works, then the conditions that apply can be identified. But, it works so seldom the information has accumulated only very slowly over the last thirty years.”
“When the unique condition is identified, than active material could made with reliability. That’s what we’re striving to accomplish at this point. We have to know the cause of the nuclear process. The only way of finding out is to explore using the right tools. Unfortunately, very few people have access to those tools.”
Impurities are the key to making nano-cracks
Edmund Storms’ is currently working in his private Kiva Labs treating palladium in various ways trying to encourage the production of nano-spaces within the metal.
He says “It’s very clear why impurities are important. When people have attempted to study very pure palladium, they’ve failed. Successful palladium has identifiable impurities in it. The problem is, we don’t know what those impurities are doing – their true concentration or their interaction.”
“Impurities at a grain boundary make a grain boundary weaker and, therefore, more susceptible to cracking. But, a lot of little cracks are required, not a few big cracks. Big cracks don’t work, and big cracks actually prevent the formation of small cracks. Making a large number of small cracks is difficult because Nature wants to make large cracks.”
“So, trying to get the material to form a lot of little cracks is the challenge, although using suitable impurities seems to improve success. However, the number of possible impurities and their combinations is close to infinity. Consequently, finding the right combination by trial and error becomes a matter of luck!”
“I describe what I do as simply buying a lottery ticket and waiting to win. Every once in a while, I win a small prize, but so far, I have not won the lottery.
I buy a ticket, and see if I’m going to win, and if don’t, I buy another ticket.”
Edmund Storms is hopeful that a solution will be found, either by a lab in the U.S., or in one of the many countries around the globe desperate for energy.
“I’m optimistic that a solution will be found. However, this particular phenomenon of nature is one of the more difficult ones to figure out. It’s difficult because it has no theory behind it, it is not something science can conveniently understand, but also a very negative attitude is being applied by conventional scientists.”
“Fortunately, a few individuals with a lot of money have set up laboratories in the US. If they persist, I expect they will figure it out.”
“I know this is happening in other countries as well. For example Japan has a very active program that is making progress in understanding. I suspect China also has a program, with both of these countries having a huge incentive to figure out how this works; the United States, not so much.
See also:
Q&A on the NAEShift theoretical focus from nuclear consequences to chemical beginnings
LENR behaviors that theory must explain
How basic behavior of LENR can guide a search for an explanation
A massive compilation of the experiments, notebooks, papers, presentations, and library of Edmund Storms was conducted by Dr. Thomas Grimshaw of the Energy Institute at University of Texas Austin. The intent was to preserve the earliest data sets of ground-breaking research in cold fusion/LENR for future review.
Since 1989, the field of condensed matter nuclear science has generated a host of experimental results without the benefit of mainstream support. Banned from publishing in science journals, many CMNS data sets have not been archived. Now, after three-decades of work, original LENR scientists are getting older, and there is an effort to preserve and archive their work for future review.
Thomas Grimshaw, Director of the LENR Research Documentation Project says, “Ed and I had been working on an initiative to open a new LENR laboratory in Santa Fe. As I was preparing a proposal for the lab and building a case for its support, I observed the depth and breath of Ed’s research materials. At that time funding was not available for the lab, so I approached Ed about doing a project to document his extensive LENR research record.”
“We both came to consider the initiative a “pilot project” for future efforts for other researchers. That’s the way we presented it at ICCF-21 last June. ”
A poster about the LENR Research Documentation Project was presented at ICCF-21 and a paper describing the process will be published in the Proceedings. See the article 29 Years of Cold Fusion Research
“It was a large effort, given the size of Ed’s research record,” says Grimshaw, “so we approached the task in a stepwise manner. First we collected the information, then we organized it using a LENR career timeline, and finally we documented each piece with memos and reports. “
The results became both historical record, and active research material.
” Well it was a revelation to me!” says Edmund Storms, a co-archivist in the project. “Tom made me realize that there may be some nuggets of gold in these mill tailings I’ve left behind.”
For many independent researchers in the CMNS field, the three-decades of work was conducted with little, if any, support. Research assistants and secretaries are still a rarity. Thus career-long experiments are often in scattered forms, some written files, data stored in old program formats – the digital revolution has changed data storage technologies several times over since 1989.
All of that disconnected media becomes intelligible when coalesced, and pictures can become patterns when seen with new eyes.
“It’s always true that when you’re doing research, you’re doing it in the the context of what you know at the time,” says Edmund Storms, “but over a period of time, your understanding changes, and it improves. “
“If you don’t go back and look at what you’ve gotten from nature in the past, and re-evaluate it, that new knowledge is not really being put to good use.”
“So the idea was, based upon what we understand today, go back through, and see if something that I saw in the past and ignored because I didn’t understand it, might be understandable today.”
Cold Fusion Research: Experiments, Explanations, and Related Scientific Contributions Draft Summary by Dr. Thomas Grimshaw Energy Institute The University of Texas at Austin and Dr. Edmund Storms Kiva Labs are listed in .pdfs here (minus primary data sets):
Projects such as these bring old data to the light of new perspective, but they also preserve a historical timeline in a unique field of science that might have easily disappeared before ever getting started, and Edmund Storms’ LENR work is just the first record to be made.
Thomas Grimshaw says, “I realized while working with Ed that he was perhaps the most knowledgeable and creative researcher in the field. It was also easy to see that if Ed left the field, the loss of this large research record would be a major blow not only to the field, but also potentially for humankind, given the importance of realizing the benefits of LENR as a clean, abundant, and cheap energy source.”
“Similar documentation projects are now underway with four other LENR investigators. And a generous grant has been received to support the effort with other researchers in the future.”
Now, as breakthrough nears, the story of cold fusion will be re-written with the words and record of the scientists who lived it, and projects like this one will provide the authoritative and irrefutable proof of their success.